Planting Veggies

Remember the photo that shocked Little Cuter?

This was the condition of the little garage I use as my potting shed.

It was a sorry state of affairs, to be sure.

Bending and lifting and pivoting are each possible for me now.

Combing the three in one safe (let alone fluid) motion is still beyond my capabilities.

At least, that was the excuse I gave.

But our planting season is short here in Tucson, and I've let enough go by without access to my tools.

Besides, we are hosting a wedding in a little over five months; I have to be ready.

So, on Saturday I shopped and on Sunday I planted.

Before I could plant, I had to organize. 

It took me two hours to get to the point where the floor was clear enough to step back and take this.

This is a before shot of the tool shelf. 

The irrigantion tubing poking out of my red plastic containers ended up there because it was the only place I could reach.

The garden shelf was inaccessible.

There was no place to move the bicycle

and no place to stand in front of the gardening stuff.

I started small.

That red plastic bucket had irrigation connectors galore.

True, they were all in one place.

Unfortunately, some are T shaped and some are straight and some are pointy at one end and this is not an efficient way to store them.

Daddoooo would have spent time at a hardware or tackle store, searching out a plastic case with just the right sized compartments.

I, being thrifty, decided to reuse the empty plastic seedling containers.

Perched atop the stool which sat in G'ma's kitchen, the stool on which countless salads were made and sandwiches created, I channelled my inner parent and separated the pieces by shape.

I could feel Daddoooo smiling at me. 

Gradually, things began to take shape.

I hope you noticed the clean floor beneath that stool, for example.

The gardening tools were suddenly usuable.

I need some more hooks and a magnetic strip might be nice, but I'm thinking this is a good start.

I even have shelf space on which I can work.

Tired but undaunted, I loaded up my supplies and headed to the raised bed.

The plants had been placed on Saturday afternoon. 

The euphorbia rigida (Gopher Plant) in the back corner was a tiny shoot when I stuck it in there in December of 2010.  On Sunday I removed it and stored it carefully.  It will become part of my living fence out front.  For now, it's merely in the way.

I planted and I irrigated and I secured the tomato cage.

There are marigolds and Supersweet 100s and a jalapeno, a yellow bell peper and two watermelons there in the back, ready to vine themselves over the wall and out onto the ground.

It was finished but looked incomplete. 

It needed a more personal touch.

And then I remembered the sign I bought Daddooooo in Los Angeles, at the art fair next to the hotel we were using as a base to attend one of Reggie's boys' bar mitzvah's. 

 Doesn't that look better?

I'm looking for lettuces to intersperse in the spaces.

It will keep down the weeds, and provide me hours of joy.

I am rarely as happy as when I am picking something I've grown .... and then eating it.

It you're ever in Tucson, come on over. 

There will be plenty to share.