Oh - it's really Spring now! The chainsaw is in full song 3 houses down, sounds like it's right oustide my freakin' door. Rakes are singing on the chemical lawns. The mockingbird with a deathwish finally went to sleep as the sun came up. Grrr.

I raked level the sloping weed patch that DH rototilled for me last week. No other way to plant - those weeds and bermuda grass were THICK. Since the lil' fetus has little over 2 months left to ripen, I'm trying to finish all the prep that I can for summer AND fall, and boy, howdy, is my back SORE. :_|

But we're christening the new area the "Apricot Garden", even though the 40+ year old tangerine tree dominates that patch. DH loves his apricots. (They NEVER are given away in a basket in the church foyer.)

There is bermuda grass, hellish amounts of oxalis and at least 3 other persistent weeds that I'm oh-so-slowly eradicating. Time to hire my strappy nephew to help dig!

There's cans of "Angel Wing" jasmine, plumbago, "Henry Nevard" roses (labelled crimson; bloomed PINK X-( ), catmint, and dahlias of purple, red and orange waiting to be planted. I'm going nuts keeping them alive until the ground is clear enough to dig holes. Maybe I should just plant them in weed-free holes and worry about the inbetween spaces in the summer/fall??

I also planted Crimson Sweet watermelon, an early honeydew, Vidi red bell peppers, 2 kinds of cucumbers, and lots of tomatoes: Jetsetter, Lillian's Yellow Heirloom, Black Krim, Rose de Bern and Champion.

The snow peas are starting to produce and I just picked a few bouquets of sweet peas to give to my sister. Not armfuls, yet, but soon. The bicolor purple called North Shore is perfuming the kitchen today, sigh. :8}

-nita