If I didn’t like rain, I most certainly wouldn’t live in the Pacific Northwest. Even so, I have to confess to being frustrated with the endless drizzle this weekend. I was itching to work out in the yard! The garden is benefitting from all the moisture, though. The salad greens look like they’ve doubled in size overnight and the beets and peas are growing vigorously. The radishes also have some nice greenery on top. Unfortunately, a squirrel dug up some of them, which revealed rather scrawny roots. I hope they fatten up soon.

The seedlings I’ve started indoors are growing at a prodigious rate too. The tomatoes look especially healthy. I sadly have to report that some others died an unhappy death due to a garden pest I wasn’t prepared for: the dreaded TERRIBLE TWO-YEAR OLD. Yes, that’s right. Claire dumped a bunch of seedlings on the floor and proceeded to scatter dirt all over the room, not to mention giving herself a healthy dusting. For the life of me, I can’t find any useful advice in my gardening books about how to deal with such a devastating pest

While trapped indoors, I worked on some organizational projects that should help me learn from future gardening efforts. As you can see, I worked a lot on getting this blog set up so I’ll have a nice place to journal about my experiences. I also created a chart of plants I’ve started growing this year and attempted to record what I need to do to care for them. I’ll be working on this more throughout the year. What this list makes apparent is that I did not heed the sage advice of the Seattle Tilth gardeners, who recommended only planting 8-10 things for my first garden. (It’s even more apparent if you understand that this list is INCOMPLETE…I have not yet listed everything planted…) If I’m hauled off in a straight jacket in the next few months, you’ll all know why!