Oh, nevermind...maybe I'll start another blog someday. Might even have another garden someday after I've forgotten this experience.

Your first job is to prepare the soil. The best tool for this is your neighbor's garden tiller. If your neighbor does not own a garden tiller, suggest that he buy one. -Dave Barry

Does anyone ever update this blog?

The cucumbers that were just "poking up" back at the first of April are fully sprouted now and some even have flowers blooming. They are still quite small though and really look more like plants than cucumber vines. There are 8 viable tomato plants and I believe they all have some little 'maters on them. However, they are all showing signs of Early Blight and I don't really want to use a fungicide to treat this because I would like to keep it as natural as possible. Any suggestions?

Pictures to come.

The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul. -Alfred Austin

Yesterday I noticed there were several cucumber seedlings poking through the mulch.

Gardening seems to be a gamble. I took a chance on getting started early and planted around mid March. It seemed like a reasonable risk to take since we had a very mild winter from December through early March. However, this IS north Texas and the spring climate is VERY unpredictable. After the getting a year's worth of rain in two days we were treated to temperatures in the mid to low 30's. Even after Theresa and I went to the trouble to cover all the plants that I had just put out the cold won. I lost all 4 tomatos and 6 of 8 pepper plants. I did save one of each tomato and transplanted them into a clay pot. Believe it or not they are showing signs of life. Then I planted 6 new tomato plants in the row; 2 Early Girl, 2 SuperFantastic, and 2 SuperSweet 100. We will have to see what happens next.

Just this past Saturday I planted some cucumber seeds along the fence. I'll wait to post more pictures once there is some impressive growth.

Here is a more current photo of James and Andrea from their trip to Mexico.

Today is the first day of spring and I just came across this quote:
"Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!" - Robin Williams

I just spoke with my oldest son, James, yesterday. He and his lovely wife, Andrea, just returned from their delayed honeymoon to Mexico. Then it dawned on me that I had not posted any photos of them in this space. So here is one from their wedding in May '05.