Who doesn't love a little herb in the afternoon?

My friend Anita says she reads my blog when I have an interesting title. Perhaps this one has lured her in. Anita? Are you there?

So the garden. Josh went crazy and planted a bunch of lettuce and various other seeds in February! because we had a really warm stint.

Josh: This global warming is great! It just extended the growing season! I'm planting salad greens right now!

Me: We might be in for a cold snap. Maybe you should wait.

Josh: Wait? Cold snap? Do you know how many tons of coal the US and China are burning every day?

Me: Whatever you want, Dear.

Enter cold snap, stage right.

Me: I think the radishes are experiencing suspended animation. Are the leaves supposed to be amber?

Josh: (in know-it-all voice) Yes, I looked it up.

Me: You know-it-all.

I may have made that whole conversation up, but the basic facts are solid.

I can't seem to make this garden my own. Perhaps my subconscious is emanating wariness because of what happened to my last garden. You may recall that, while we were living at 121, I took weeks to plan and execute quite a garden - three raised beds - complete with flowers for attracting the right kinds of bugs and hummingbirds. Yeah, my friends, a Garden. And then the homeowners announced that they would sell the house. This was the end of April, i.e., after all the planting had been done. Bastards.

What am I afraid of here, in our very own house? Dunno. That's the beauty of the subconscious, I suppose. Our next door neighbor told us that we were building the raised bed on the easement. Perhaps my subconscious is a gun-toting member of the Minnesota militia who thinks The Man is going to come and dig up all my carrots. Hm.

Whatever the reason, I just need to get out there. We have a lot of old seeds that I should just scatter and see if they will grow. That way I can start fresh next year. This year, I can just take the philosophy that I will reap whatever feels like sprouting, no big deal. Yeah, right. I am not so good with No Big Deal. I like to create Big Deals, in fact. It's my thing.

If we count my subconscious as one obstacle, than numbers two and three are the weeds and the vines, in that order. I think that all the weeds in Seattle come from our yard. It's that bad. And the grass. Oh, the grass - it's everywhere. I may have said this already, but I think we need to slash and burn. Really. Not kidding. That would also take care of the ridiculous vines that our neighbor said "the old man" liked, for some reason. That old man was the previous owner who is about 3 years older than our next door neighbor. I love the fact that we have a crotchety neighbor who came out to meet us so that he could relate (1) he hates the vines and the old man used to keep them away from the fence, nudge nudge; and (2) we were building the raised bed on the easement.

So, I do this thing where I fixate on an order and want to do it that way or no way. So my order is:

1. Weed the whole property.

2. Get rid of all the nasty vines and plants I hate.

3. Plant garden of edibles.

Yeah, not going to happen. Or, it will happen, but over the course of several years.

Somehow I managed to compromise this order, which I etched in stone, and plant the herbs. I planted a few from seeds and a few from starts. The oregano, tarragon, and chives in the foreground came back from last summer! Wow. I'm going to need more tarragon, though, as it has become my summer crush. You'll see ....