There are few things in gardening more magical than planting a seed, seeing it sprout, and watching it grow into a plant. We were back at Lowe’s on Saturday, got a pony pack of yellow marigolds for the garden out front—not planted yet—potting soil, and some seeds. Since I mostly garden in pots on the deck, for the most part I’d prefer buying one or two baby plants than seeds, but Dave insists. This is one of those points where going against him just isn’t worth it. I was too slow a week ago, should have picked up a baby tomato plant then when his back was turned, but didn’t. So, this weekend we went charging around the store looking for seeds. Who would have thought they’d be not in or near the gardening department, but clear across the store by the main entrance, hidden next to the paint? Go figure.

Anyway, we bought a packet of grape tomato seeds, one of short little marigolds—mixed colors—and one of zinnias—also mixed colors. I planted some of the seeds yesterday afternoon. That nice big pot that’s partially in the sun holds four—or was it five?—tomato seeds. The tomato(s) will remain in that pot on the deck for the summer. The peat pots have marigold seeds. I need more peat pots to plant the rest of the marigold seeds and to start the zinnias in. The marigolds will be transferred to the front garden when they’re (hopefully) big enough to fend for themselves against the hungry rabbits and gophers that we lease our land from.

On Friday I visited a very dear, old friend of mine, Deedee. “Old friend” in that we’ve been friends absolutely forever. I don’t know about you, but I count forty years of friendship as being pretty much forever. She made a wonderful lunch for us, which we ate out in her garden, watching the hummingbirds drink at the feeders, and the finches bathe in the fountain. Before I left she gave me some slips from her chocolate mint plant. I tucked them into this pot as soon as I got home. Yes, they’re a bit down in the mouth at the moment, but I’m hoping to coax roots from their stems before the week is out. Keep your fingers crossed.

I shared pictures on March 6 of some new pansies and a primrose that I’d planted that weekend. I thought I’d share some flora progress. The primrose is in full flower, as bright a red as you can imagine. It takes dear Dave’s breath away. Of all the plants and flowers his mother grew while he was a kid, she never did these. He didn’t know about primroses until we got together, and he just loves the vivid colors. The pansies have been growing like mad. The pots are nearly full of greenery now, and the Velour Frosted Chocolate ones are starting to send forth their cheery blooms.

The four onions I planted in with the rosemary plant have come up. Aren’t they fun? Dave thought they’d look strange in the pot together, but I said, why not? They taste great together, why shouldn’t I grow them together?

Overall, the deck is starting to look a little more like a garden, and a little less like a clay pot morgue. This is good. Don’t worry, though. There are more empty clay pots in the garage that need plant-like friends living in them. I won’t run out any time soon…

While I was planting seeds yesterday, I had a furry little helper with me. I wish I could have gotten a shot of her while I was actually planting… She was sitting right behind me, with this worried little expression on her furry face. She’s not used to this sort of behavior from me. I think I’ve got her stumped. I had to wait until I had clean hands. Didn’t want to get all that dirt into the inner workings of my camera. (Do digital cameras have “inner workings”? Best not to tempt fate.) Here she’s rubbing happily on the dead succulent hanging out of the side of the strawberry pot on the other side of the deck. That succulent is the one plant that I let die purposefully. It was the only way I could think of of getting it out of the pot without breaking the pot. As you can see, I haven’t gotten as far as removing it yet.

Delivery

Another thing I got from Deedee on Friday was a link to her organic vegetable supplier. She gets weekly home deliveries of yummy produce from Organic Express. If you’re in a part of California that they cover, you might give them a try. She highly recommends them. We signed up for delivery every other week to test ‘em out. Our first delivery is due on Wednesday.

Knitting

I got a ton of knitting done on the Melon shawl over the weekend—down the second side, around the third corner, and nearly to the final corner. I’m nearing the home stretch. I’m miserable at grafting, the only glitch in the successful completion of this shawl. I managed to coerce a link to some grafting instructions from Kristie—not that it was difficult, she was happy to share. I’m thinking I need to practice that a couple of times on some smoother, thicker yarn before I try to tackle it on the shawl. Kristie had this link to Knitting Nelly’s jogless bind off on her blog, so I swiped that for future reference while I was at it.

On the design front, Miriam has a design on the cover of the upcoming book, Best of Interweave Knits. You go, girl!