We have liftoff: sunflowers that the kids planted are up!

Planting in the rain

I took a chance in pouring rain - is this a brilliant idea, or are they just going to die? - and planted the rest of the fruits/veggies in mud in garden 3: one more purple cherokee tomato, giant harvard tomato, dutch tomato, 3 roma tomato plants that did not look the greatest in the store, two green bell peppers, one red pepper. It's pouring rain now.

CSA! Hooray!

We received our first CSA share (half-share, actually). In it was leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, two pounds of  asparagus, one dozen awesome eggs. I didn't know that eggs could be so delicious. I am a big fan of Rich Carpenter and Carpenter's Organic Produce so far, and I look forward to my weekly "Christmas presents."

Other checked-off items from my checklist today include:

• cultivated garden 2.
• planted zucchini.
• planted in garden 3: Royal Prince tomato; cherokee purple tomato; two early girl tomatoes; four cayenne red peppers. "Early Girl tomatoes aren't early and aren't good," said my sister. If they're in fact early, then I'll find out soon if I agree with her. I haven't had very many tomatoes that I didn't like.

Cuteness (imvho)

I:

• Planted sunflowers with kids. We're fond of hand-held cultivators. We just are.
• Trimmed the sunflower garden.
• Pruned two butterfly bushes - a lot.
• Cultivated and preened (with chemicals) the vegetable garden (garden 3) again.

Random, exhausting observations and actions

• Birds have built at least 6 nests in the deck.
• There's lots of poison ivy in the field at the back of the property.
• I cut some old daisy waste out of the sunflower garden.
• I'm cultivating the vegetable garden (garden 3) with a small handheld cultivator.
• The first lilac flowers are blooming from the large monge lilac - they're so pretty.
• First strawberries are appearing.

Daffodils

That's all of the daffodils, folks. In the cutest packaging I could find.