Hot Pepper's 2011 Garden

On May 23, I planted my garden in the late afternoon. In the past, I'd tried my hand at container gardening, but even that I hadn't done in a couple of years. This year marks a new venture. I went to Lowe's, bought a raised garden, two-tier bed kit, 5 - 2 cu. ft. bags of garden soil with fertilizer, and several small plants. In fact, I went kind of crazy with the inventory including sweet basil, Thai basil, hot banana pepper, rosemary, cucumber, Thai hot pepper, jalepeno, mint, German John heirloom tomato, strawberries, Mr. Stripey and Black Krim heirloom tomatoes, crook neck squash, Chinese eggplant, Red Bull sweet pepper, Bonnie green bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, and Bonnie original tomato.

My son helped me put the kit together. I didn't have enought soil and had to go up the street to Home Depot for 3 more 2 cu.ft. bags. I also bought some rabbit repellent because just that morning I'd seen a baby rabbit in the backyard munching away. Originally, I was going to wait until the next day to plant, but after putting the raised bed together I got a second wind and planted everything that evening! Dirty, tied and body aching I ended the day proud of my accomplishment.

The next day, I got up, dressed and inspected my garden. Beads of rain glistened on the plant leaves after an early morning rain. Sounds corny, but it was magical. I took a picture. And every day since, I've repeated my morning ritual, watching over my little garden, watering it, and anxiously waiting to see the fruits of my labor.