Finally bought that patch of dirt, and house

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3 months after our bid was accepted, we are finally getting the keys to our first house tomorrow!

It’s amazing how many shenanigans can be stuffed into the home-buying process. But we closed today and we can finally take possession tomorrow. Despite all the hassles, it was well worth it. We got a great bargain on a cute little house in a nice neighborhood. I can see the lake down the street from the front yard.

Seeing as we bid on it back in February when it was under several inches of snow, we have been pleasantly surprised to see all the flowers. The front landscaping was actually very well done. There is a lovely magnolia tree, some kind of little weeping cherry, a japanese maple, an azalea. There are miscellaneous shrubs that I have not yet identified. There seems to be some kind of strawberry, whether ornamental or large-fruited, I don’t yet know. There were a smattering of bulbs: daffodils, and some tulips.

It was very sweet, my husband was surprisingly excited about the tulips. He said “I always thought I would be looking at other people’s tulips in the spring, I never thought I would actually be a tulip-owner.”

Those tomato seeds I eagerly started a couple of months ago have been struggling along in my apartment. I rigged up an old aquarium with a grow-bulb as a seed-starting area, and have several tender baby tomato plants going along. So far, Cherokee Purple have been much more tolerant of my setup than Amish Paste or Martino’s Roma. I have only one each of the latter two varieties left.

My poor little tomatoes weren’t helped by a carnivorous menace in the house! While I was transplanting the little starts to slightly bigger pots, I walked out of the room for a moment to talk to my hubby about something. When I returned, I thought… “I didn’t spill any dirt on the floor”… then I realized, it was not just dirt, but also a couple of decapitated baby tomato stalks on the floor, and my bad little kitty on the other side of the room looking all too pleased with herself. Nevertheless, enough little tomatoes are surviving that I think I will have a few that make it into the garden in a couple weeks.

Next year, I will plan a much more sophisticated set-up for seed propagating. Next year, I will be able to start a lot more seeds too. My main question now: how much will I be able to plant this year, seeing as I got my patch of dirt so late into the spring? We’ll have a lot of home-improvement projects indoors to do, how much energy will I have for veggie gardening this year?

• 13 May, 2008
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