Today, we planted carrots, beets, lettuce and radishes.  And by “we”, I mean ”Buzz”.  I had extremely limited mobility because of my recent knee surgery, so I could only work where I could reach, which wasn’t much.  I did a little weeding around the peas and Brussels sprouts and I did actually plant the beets, but poor Buzz had to do everything else. 

We are right on time with the garden, I believe.  The next thing to go in the ground?  Herbs (which will actually go into an Earthbox) somewhere around mid-May and then summer squash and cucumbers the following week.

I think I spied one little potato plant coming up and we have about 8 pea plants.  The scallions are starting to come up.  The onions and leeks still look good (even though we had some very cold weather after planting them) and the Brussels sprouts look fabulous for the most part (one plant is struggling).

So there we are.  The plants all got their first dose of plant food and they should be happy as can be with the sunshine and warm weather we’re having.

Actually, today was really hot weather.  I am sweating like crazy (because I REFUSE to turn on the air conditioner in April).  Good thing I was able to actually take a shower today! 

OK, I have been at home alone for three days straight.  Well, “alone” is a relative term.  There have been no other humans with me all day. 

I had knee surgery on Tuesday and I’ve been working from home since then, mostly because I can’t take a shower and I totally refuse to go to work when the best I can do is something called a SPONGE BATH.  Sorry, that’s not going to incite me to venture out where there are other people who don’t love me.  (Buzz has to put up with it because he does love me.)

But to the point of this post, I have been home alone - with the cats.  They are driving me out of my ever-loving mind!  Maddy feels that the box on the desk behind me (and every single piece of fine wood in this house) is a scratching post so she spends many hours of the day trying to claw at that.  And also trying to (and usually succeeding in) pulling out the two rolls of 120 film that need to be developed and tossing them to the ground.  Thirty-five times a day.  When I tell her to get down, she gets pissy and bats at Phoebe, the 15-year-old who needs some major veterinary care.  Easy target, I suppose.

I have to keep my leg elevated so I have a box with a cushion on it under my desk.  Valley swears that this is her bed and will bite me when I try to put my foot up on it.  Seventeen times a day.  And when I tell her to get down, she gets pissy and runs upstairs and picks a fight with Bella.  Cue the spitting and hissing and growling and howling.

I have had cats who were spiteful before but never ones that went for the other cats.  They always just ignored me when they were mad at me.  These guys are vicious!  It’s no wonder Courtney stays in the basement all day.  I think she’s just staying out of the fray!

It’s going to be very, very good for me to get out of the house.  And soon.

I’m very angry with this cat:

Today, we put our first plants into the ground.  Woo hoo!!  Garden ‘09 has begun!  I’m hoping to do better chronicling what is happening, both in word and pictures over on Flickr.

This is what went in today:

10 All Blue Potatoes
10 Kennebec Potatoes
10 Red Pontiac Potatoes
10 Red Gold Potatoes
48 Scallions
62 Red Onion, Yellow Onion and/or Leek plants that we had started indoors earlier this year (we lost track of which ones were which)
32 Sweet Peas

Next up in a couple of weeks will be carrots, beets, lettuce and radishes.  But we need to build up one section of our garden so it’s double-deep and we need some more ”Mel’s Mix” to supplement what was there from last year and also to fill our Earth Boxes and containers on the deck.  Lots to do and it’s going to get really, really busy come May.  I’m excited!

UPDATE:  Just when I thought we were done gardening for the day, we were surprised by Statia and Meester, who brought us Brussels Sprouts and strawberry plants!  Woo hoo!!