Close to the Perfect Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day, so to all of you Moms out there, I hope your day was as good as mine.

First my boys took me to breakfast after church, in the parish center. The church gave out carnations after each mass, so I asked for and got a red one. Carnations are probably my favorite flower, even over roses, because of their scent. So fresh, green, and slightly spicy. And they last much longer than roses. Roses are lovely but oh so fussy. I've grown rose bushes from year-old canes, and they were nice, but entirely too delicate and too much work, not to mention some pretty serious thorns. Those things drew blood.

My grandmother had planted carnations along the side of her condo driveway, and those flourished with relatively little care needed, until the next-door neighbor ran them over with his lawnmower. Anything marring the teeny strip of grass was an offense, I guess. He was kind of an odd person.

After breakfast, the day was warming so we headed home, where I got some cards (including a craft store gift card, woohoo!) from my family and the instructions to "do whatever I wanted to do". My favorite. I thought about what I wanted in my garden bed, then took a nap. I likely should have gone early to the garden store, but it was a day for relaxing. By the time I did go out a few hours later, they were well picked over, and still busy.

Still, I picked up a tomato plant, a mini pepper plant, and some seeds. I am nothing if not optimistic. Then it was time to grab the hoe and decapitate the little weeds that had dared to sprout in the month since my husband had turned the soil for me. That really took less time than I thought it would. I think I complained about having to do it longer than it actually took. I even found the tablespoon we had left in the garden last year after planting my younger son's seeds that he had started at school.

That is a whole other story in itself. The tomatoes and cukes I planted last year never flowered or grew. I planted these spindly little seedlings he brought home from school....squash, corn, and pumpkins. I thought to myself, "He's happy they're planted, if they die, they die." Then, we left on vacation for two weeks.

We came back to all my plants dead in the bone dry dirt. But my younger son's plants had invaded and taken over the garden. The single corn stalk was huge, and growing an ear of corn! The pumpkin and squash vines had gone crazy and were all over the garden, taking over, and growing fruit! I still cannot figure it out. But he was very proud of the pumpkin we harvested in the fall.

Hopefully, my garden will do better this year.

The tomato and pepper I bought as plants. I also planted cucumber seeds, summer squash, and radishes. The radishes are a quick grow and very satisfying, a benefit to children. While setting in my plants and seeds I discovered two plants already in the garden were coming back.

 Lemon balm, and spearmint. Of course the mint is trying to cover the whole garden, because that's what mint does. I had to chop the advance back with the weeds. But once I was done planting, I enjoyed both plants...

...in an awesome cup of iced tea. And after that? It was time to get serious with the boys.

Happy belated Mother's Day, and Happy Spring.