"It wasn't a dream!"

That's right folks, already some of my little plant-babies have bravely stuck their heads up out of the dirt and into the sunshine. Doesn't it look happy? Like it's shouting, "Yay! Here I am!"

Have you ever seen the movie, "My Neighbor Totoro"? If not, you should, because it's wonderful and magical and adorable. At one of my favorite points in the movie, the two little girls who are the main characters are given a bundle of magic seeds and acorns, which they plant in the yard. Over the next several days, they check them obsessively, trying to see if they're growing. Nothing happens until one night, the girls have a dream (or was it a dream?) that their magic seeds grow into a huge tree. The next morning when they wake up, the tree is gone, but the seeds have indeed sprouted and started to grow. The girls are ecstatic, and they dance around shouting "It was only a dream!" and "It wasn't a dream!"

I mention this because I feel like I'm living it right now. I, too, have been obsessively checking my garden since planting the seeds this last Tuesday. Even though I knew it would take several days, maybe even a week, before I saw anything sprout, I couldn't help but worry every time I checked on them and found nothing. What if I planted them too deep? What if they don't germinate because it's not warm enough? What if that rain storm washed them away, or scrambled them all up?

Then, two nights ago, I dreamed about my garden, about it sprouting and growing. Just like in the movie, my dream garden grew tall and bloomed right before my eyes. And then I woke up. But again, like the movie, when I went outside first thing in the morning to check on the garden and give it some water, I found that my dream had come true, at least partially. One of the zinnias had sprouted!

I knew it was a zinnia because it was wearing its little 'seed hat,' which I recognized from planting it four days ago. Four days! That's it! Amazing. It seemed like forever, while I was waiting for them, but when I actually stop and think about it, that is amazingly fast.

That day several more seedlings broke through the surface: a few cosmos, another zinnia, and most of the marigolds. Today, they've been joined by even more, and now nearly all the seedlings of those three flowers have come up. Everything else is still hiding, and those worries I had before haven't gone away completely, but it's so exciting to see the little baby flowers starting to grow. If anything, I'm checking them even more obsessively now than I did before, and every time they seem bigger.

Isn't life amazing?

YAY!

The garden is planted! The garden is planted! THE GARDEN IS PLANTED!

...can you tell I'm excited?

I shoveled a lot of dirt yesterday. I'm not exactly sure how much a cubic foot weighs, but I'm willing to guess I moved several hundred pounds from my truck to the beds. Luckily, it was a gorgeous day, and I was too happy to mind the work. And it really wasn't that bad. Several hundred pounds moves surprisingly quickly if you just take it one shovel-full at a time.

Turns out Steve the dirt guy was right about me needing to come back; I hadn't gotten quite enough topsoil on Monday. I was able to fill two of the beds completely and got a little into the third before I ran out. I hadn't been off by too much, but I still needed more, and this would give me a chance to pay for it all. Back I went to Steve's lot, shovel in hand.

My strategy for filling the beds was to start with some topsoil, then pour in some compost and mix the two together. I kept going like that, with the compost getting more concentrated towards the top of the bed, until it was full. For the last bed, I decided to mix that last layer of soil and compost with my hands, instead of with the rake and shovel. It was late afternoon, the sun was hot on my back, and the soil was cool and damp in my hands. I reached down to my wrists in the soft dirt, then scooped it up and turned it over to mix everything together. Before I finished, I just stood there for a moment, my hands buried like I was going to put down roots myself. It felt so soft and rich and nice; I think my plants will really like it.

Filled with love.

When the last bed was filled, I stood there in amazement for a few minutes. Was it really time? I've been daydreaming about having a real garden for ages and ages, since I don't know when. Almost everywhere I've gone since leaving home, I've picked up plants along the way. I had a basil plant and a bedraggled sunflower that I carted around with me when I was on tour in the UK. I had my sunlight-deprived primrose and dahlias in Philadelphia. And now this: three neat square beds filled with rich, dark earth, just waiting for me to fill them up. I almost couldn't believe it was real!

I started by dividing each bed into nine one-foot squares with twine. While I'm not technically following the square-foot gardening practices completely, I am borrowing some of it's ideas. This seemed like the easiest way to organize my garden and start things out neat, plus it will make weeding easier, should that become an issue. (I'm hoping the newspaper I put at the bottom of the beds, as well as our general lack of grass, will make for minimal weeds. This might be wishful thinking.)

Part of the afternoon, while I was waiting to go pick up more topsoil, had been spent rearranging the garden layout that I'd planned when I bought seeds. I decided that it probably really was too late in the season to plant my peas and carrots. They'll just have to wait for the fall, along with the still-theoretical kale, brussels sprouts, and bachelor's buttons I'd like to plant then as well. So instead, I added another square of green beans, a third tomato plant, and more flowers. (One can never have too many flowers.) Now, with my garden plan sketched out in my notebook and the box of seeds under my arm, I was ready to go.

It seems like such a simple thing: poke a hole of the appropriate depth into the dirt, drop in a seed or two, and cover it back up again (or not, depending on the plant). After all that anticipation, it was so easy and quick. But it felt magical. I looked at the little seeds in my hand and tried to imagine the plants they'd grow into. Some of them, especially the anise hyssop, mint, and thyme seeds, seemed so impossibly small. How could a big bushy plant grow out of something so tiny? The mint seeds were so small that when I poured them into my hands, I couldn't tell which little black specks were seeds and which were grains of dirt.

Some of the others surprised me as well. The nasturtium seeds, for example, were much bigger than I'd thought they'd be and looked like knobbily brains the size of my little fingernail. And then there were some, like the cosmos, zinnia, and marigold seeds, that I recognized from planting them with my Mom when I was little. It was like meeting old friends again: "Hello there! How are you? It's been a while, hasn't it? It's good to see you again."

I love that different varieties of plants have names, some more fantastical than others. Here's what I'm growing, fun names included:

• Nasturtiums - Kaleidoscope Mix
• Marigolds - Red Gems
• Borage
• Zinnias - Giant Dahlia Mix (originally I wanted to grow the State Fair mix, which I think is what my Dad used to grow, but they were all sold out of those seeds when I made my order)
• Sage 
• Bell peppers - Islander (they're PURPLE!)
• Green beans - Jade
• Mint
• Grape tomatoes - Red Pearl (which makes me think of the Black Pearl, which makes me think of pirates, which makes me happy)
• Heirloom tomatoes - Amish Paste
• Anise Hyssop
• Thyme - Orange
• Cosmos - Sensation Mix
• Lemon Basil (from my Dad, which makes it special even without a fancy name)

Alex came out and planted with me for a while, which was wonderful. As we finished the last bed, he turned cameraman to document the event. Here are some of the pictures he took:

Yes, my current watering can is a milk jug with holes punched in the cap.

In less than a half hour, everything was planted, watered, and ready to go. The rest of the evening, I kept peeking out the window to look at the garden, almost like I was expecting to see things sprouting already. This morning I think I've checked on it three times. Of course it looks exactly the same as it did yesterday. But every time I think, maybe something has changed, maybe one of them is growing. And they are, I guess, just not visibly yet. But right now, I bet, they're starting to wake up.

Ready, set...

...Go?

I think today might be the day. Planting time. I still need to finish filling the beds, but I have a good feeling that seeds might go in the ground today. Here's what's been going on the past few days:

On Sunday, Alex and I borrowed a shovel, rake, mattock, and wheelbarrow from our neighbor and started digging. We leveled out the beds and sunk them a few inches into the ground, loosening up the soil and pulling out the weeds in the process. The soil here is very sandy and soft, so all of this was surprisingly easy, which was nice. Also, we discovered that there used to be a tree in the middle of the yard, and it's roots are still buried and not fully decomposed. By the time we were done we had a nice little pile of them that we'd pulled out.

This was the result:

It was so satisfying to turn the earth and get my hands in the dirt. It feels so grounding and nurturing, not to mention exciting when I imagined the plants that will grow there. It's really starting to look like a garden now in a way that it hasn't before. There's something solid and sturdy about it that was missing when the beds were just sitting there on the grass (or on the oak leaves and clover; we don't have much actual grass here).

Then two exciting things happened yesterday: first, the last of my seeds were delivered. I'd been waiting on my backordered arugula seeds from Johnny's, and my Dad said he was sending me basil and cilantro seeds (and a croquet set, just for the fun of it. Thanks Papa!). Both those packages came yesterday.

And the second exciting thing is that I got my topsoil! In the late afternoon I got a call from the dirt guy, saying if I was available in an hour, he could meet me at his landscaping place and I could get my stuff. An hour later, I pulled into the gravel lot and backed my truck up to the pile of lovely, dark brown, slightly sandy topsoil. Steve the dirt guy hopped out of his skid loader, took a look at the topper covering the bed of my truck and asked, "How were you planning on getting this stuff in there?" I smiled cheerfully and said, "Well, I brought I shovel..."

Usually Steve just uses the skid loader to dump the desired amount of material into a person's truck, but my topper prevented him from do that. So instead, he scoped up a load of dirt and drove it over to my truck, so I could just shovel it straight from there and not have to bend over so much. This made it much easier than it would have been if I'd been shoveling straight from the pile.

We chatted while I worked. I told him about Wisconsin, and he told me about how his family has lived in this area for generations. His grandfather ran a hardware store in town that was one of the first in the area to accept credit, back before there was such thing as a credit card. He said his grandfather would just write down the person's name and how much they owed in a notebook that got locked up in the safe every night, and they paid him back when they could.

At one point, Steve's cell phone rang. He answered it, and presumably the person on the other end asked him what he was doing at the moment, because he replied "Well, right now I'm sitting here watching a young lady shovel dirt into her truck." That made me laugh. He sounded a little guilty that he wasn't helping, but he'd already apologized that he didn't have a second shovel. I told him it was fine, this was my workout for the day. (I didn't mention that I'd already done a couple hours of aerial training that morning.)

Neither of us knew what 17 cubic feet of dirt really looked like, so I just guessed. When I asked Steve how much he would change for the pile I'd shoveled, he just smiled and said, "I bet you'll be back, so why don't you just pay for it then." Sometimes, people are wonderful. I told him I'd bring the money by if what I already had did turn out to be enough, then hopped into my significantly more weighted-down truck and drove the three blocks home.

So that's where things stand now. All that's left to do before planting is to shovel the topsoil out of my truck and into the beds, mixing in the compost as I go. This morning I dressed like my Dad does for farming: shorts, a baggy white long-sleeved shirt to keep the sun off, and a kerchief on my head to keep my hair out of my face. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and it's a beautiful day to be working outside. Life is good!

Ta-da!

The beds are finished! Woo-hoo! I spent all of Friday afternoon working on them, enjoying the wonderful weather and listening to This American Life while I worked. (I think I listened to three full episodes that day...)

Power tools and pretty dresses make for a good afternoon.

And now all three are done! They're a little crooked (I learned my lesson about how fast thin boards can warp if they get wet) and not everything lines up perfectly and symmetrically, but I love them anyway.

They're actually not as crooked as they look in the above picture; the ground they're sitting on is pretty uneven, which makes it look worse. Today or tomorrow (or whenever I can borrow or buy a shovel) I'm going to dig them a few inches into the ground for stability and to level them out a bit. That will also allow me to break up the ground they're sitting on so the roots of my future plants will have an easier time of it if/when they get that big.

Alex and I bought several bags of compost at the local garden center yesterday, so all I need now is the topsoil. I'd hoped to get that yesterday, too, but unfortunately the dirt guy doesn't work on weekends, so I have to wait until Monday or Tuesday to get that last ingredient. But then, it's planting time! Yaaaay!

Impatience.

...and no, I'm not referring to the flowers.

I've decided that there aren't enough hours in the day. The garden beds are still unfinished, my seeds still in their packets. I finally have all the boards sanded and the supports cut, so maybe, just maybe, I'll finish building them today. There will definitely be pictures if I do.


In the meantime, I'm still taking care of my little mini-garden out on the back steps.

It's composed of succulents that I collected when I was out west last fall (and then subsequently dragged back across the country packed in a spare shoe), as well as a bucket of pansies that I rescued from the big box store. They were pretty bedraggled-looking when I bought them for 15 cents each, but they've flourished and are really doing well, as you can see.

That's all for now. Hopefully there will be exciting news of the "I planted stuff!!!" variety soon.

Special Delivery!

The seeds have arrived! Woo-hoo! Opening up the box and seeing all the crisp little white packets brought back memories of gardening with my Mom when I was little. I was always disappointed that the Johnny's seed packets didn't have pretty pictures on them like the ones at the hardware store did, but that doesn't bother me now. It just lets my imagination run wild, making up my own pictures of huge zinnias, cosmos as tall as I am, and purple bell peppers. I want to plant them all right now!

...Unfortunately, the beds aren't ready yet, so I have to wait. I did figure out where I'm getting the soil from, though, which is exciting. Originally, I thought I was going to have to get bagged topsoil from the big box store on the other side of town. That stuff was nice, but it was about three dollars per cubic foot, of which I need 17 or so. Then I found a local landscaping places that sells topsoil in bulk. When I told the guy who runs the place that I needed 17 cubic feet, he said it'd cost a grand total of $15. Sweet! All I need to do is show up with my truck and a shovel. Then into the beds it will go, mixed with some nice compost, and I'll be able to start planting!

I did run into one little snare with my planting scheme. Apparently, even though the county extension website says that peas and carrots can be planted in March, it's at the very tail end of the season and they really might not do well if it gets hot early. Once again, I launched into some research, culminating in a call to Johnny's to ask their advice. The verdict? The carrots should be ok if I plant them really soon, but the peas are, in the words of the very nice lady I talked to, "a crap-shoot." I think I'll plant a few anyway, just to see what happens; this is an adventure, after all! Then in the fall, I'll plant the main pea crop. Sugar snap peas in December? What a novel concept.

And we're off!

It's officially Spring! And for once, it actually feels like it. While there's still snow on the ground back home in Wisconsin, here in Florida there are flowers blooming, trees budding, and birds singing. Sorry, Midwestern friends, I'm not trying to be smug, I've just never lived in a climate like this before, and it continues to amaze me. Spiderwort blooming in March? Really?!

A little Carolina Wren has taken up residence somewhere in the area. I see him most mornings now, sitting on the porch and singing his tiny heart out. I'll post a picture of him if I can, though he doesn't usually stay still long enough for me to find my camera and snap a portrait. Instead, here's a picture of his twin, who is painted on the circuit breaker box in our kitchen.

According to the signature at the bottom, this was painted by Kathy Ward on September 11th, 1986.

Yesterday morning, I set myself up at the kitchen table with tea, markers, paper, my computer, and the Johnny's seed catalog. The next several hours were spent planning, doodling, and cutting out little pieces of paper and arranging them in pretend garden beds (I'm a visual person).

After several calls to both parents to ask various garden questions ("Mama, how big to green bean plants get?" "Papa, do you have any basil seeds left over from last year that I could have?"), I was finally ready to order seeds. Now, I'm not usually big on brand loyalty, but both my Mom and Dad have been buying seeds from Johnny's for as long as I can remember. My Dad always used to wear a Johnny's baseball cap, until they stopped sending them with commercial orders. When I was little, I used to spend the winters paging through the Johnny's catalog, marking all the plants I wanted to grow by drawing a circle around each one, with exclamation points added for emphasis when needed.

I used that same method this year, too. It took a while to narrow down the list of what I wanted to plant, which is to say, I wanted to plant everything, but I knew I couldn't. After all, this is my first solo garden, and I don't have all that much room to grow things. While I would love to grow big plants like sweetcorn, giant pumpkins, and watermelons, those should probably wait until I have more than three 3'x3' raised beds and a few small containers. Likewise, I'd love some blueberry bushes, but I'm only going to be here for a year, and blueberries are a little hard to uproot and carry cross-country on a regular basis.

My 'want to grow' list went from having something circled on almost every page in the book (which has over 200 pages...) to a short list of 28. That was still way too many plants, so I narrowed it down further still to the final 16. That is still a lot of different types of plants to grow in my little garden, but hey, go big or go home, right? Right! Besides, I reasoned that I'd store the seeds well, and would probably be able to use the leftovers for several years before they stopped germinating properly.

So the seeds are ordered and on their way! No turning back now. I'm surprisingly nervous, considering nothing major is really riding on this. I'm not trying to make a living by selling what will grow in this garden, and Alex and I won't starve if it fails. But I want it to be a successful garden; I want to grow happy plants. I feel like I owe it to them to be the best gardener I can be, and take care of them as best I can. So while I wait for my seeds, I'm doing as much research as I can. What is the best mixture of topsoil and organic matter to fill the beds with? How do I test soil pH, and how do I fix it if necessary? How many carrots can I cram into one square foot of garden space? Luckily for me, between the internet, my farmer Dad, gardener Mom, and the local garden center, the answers to these questions are readily available. Full steam ahead!

Here's a recap of the work that led up to yesterday's seed purchase:

1. When we first moved here, I was excited by the amount of southern exposure and direct sun our yard got. In Philadelphia (our most recent home before Florida), we got no direct sun whatsoever, and didn't have much of a yard anyway. The few plants I tried to grow anyway were not happy. So seeing sunlight and open space here got the gardening gears turning in my head.

2. At first, I was excited by the idea of growing a few potted plants and maybe some carrots in a bucket. Then the topic of raised beds was, well, raised, and my imagination took off.

3. Our landlord granted us permission to make raised beds. I started to believe that this might actually happen.

4. Much design research took place online. Should we buy pre-made beds, or make our own? (That was an easy question to answer.) What kind of wood should we use? Etc...

5. Alex and I spent an afternoon sketching out our final design, then bought the materials to make our three little raised beds.

6. Construction of the first bed took place:

7. Seeds were ordered. I realized that I am actually, really, and truly going to have a garden this year. Much happy-dancing ensued.

So that's where we are now. The other two beds will be made this weekend, and hopefully I'll fill them and start putting seeds in the ground soon after that! Yee-haw!