This Year's Garden

   C had been checking the weather for several days. We really needed to get our garden put in. It's been raining a lot lately. When it isn't raining C and I have had other commitments that have prevented us from working in the garden. Finally we found a day where we were both off work, had nothing else we needed to do and it wasn't supposed to rain.
   I started supper as soon as I got home from work. The sooner we ate, the sooner we could get out. We had just finished the before meal prayer when C's cell phone rang. He answered it. It was one of my stepdaughters who needed some advice. He talked to her while he ate. 
  It looked like this conversation was going to take awhile so I ate quickly and changed into some work clothes. I went out into the garage and pulled out our tools. I grabbed a rake, a hoe and a bag with some trowels in it.
  A friend of mine had given me some plants. She gave me tomatoes,peppers, marigolds and the usual surprise plants. The surprise plants are different every time. Last time it was eggplant. This year it was cabbage and kale. I'd never had kale before and have no idea how to prepare it. I had stopped by a local garden store and bought some thyme and basil plants. I have no idea how to cook with thyme . I like growing it because it smells good. I also got some snapdragons.
  I took the herb and vegetable plants and brought them to the garden. Then I took the hoe and dug it into the soil. Over and over I loosened weeds and over grown chive plants. I cleaned up as much as I could with the hoe. C was still on the phone so I went to check the side of the garden where the flowers were kept. Many things were coming up including weeds. I decided to start pulling things up.
   I pulled up handfuls of grass and other plants that were growing where I didn't want them to. Most of the things that I grow on that side  of the garden are the kind of plants that come up every year. Everything seemed to have survived. I was happy. I kept cleaning out spaces and pulling things that were growing out of control. I had a pretty good pile when C finally came out.
  He started to rake the place where the vegetables would go. Before long we were ready. We had a lot more space than we usually have. My herbs had mostly died out. It was nice to not have to cram things in.
  We started to plant what we had. The cabbage went on the end. The kale was planted next to it. The tomatoes went along the edges and the marigolds were planted in the middle. C and I had read somewhere that planting marigolds keeps away garden pests. It seems to work, we have never had any problems. We planted the pepper plants and I planted the basil and thyme.
   One of our neighbors came over and he and C started talking. While they were chatting I decided to survey the rest of the territory. The climbing rose had buds on it. If it ever warmed up we would have a lot of flowers. My lavender plant was showing some small signs of life. I walked over to the mock orange bushes. Both of them had buds and the double mock orange was going to bloom very soon. I was happy about that. The scent of mock orange is my favourite scent. I was happy that the bushes had survived the cold spring weather.
  I went to one of the trees. There was supposed to be a ring of hostas around it. There was nothing but a ring of small weeds. The hostas had not made it. I was going to have to buy more and plant them. That project would have to wait.
   I was pleased with what I saw. Except for the hostas we had not lost anything. Not bad for having snow and colder temperatures in April and May.
  It was starting to get late. There would be no time to plant the flowers. I needed to buy some peppermint and lemon balm and more flower plants. This year's garden looks pretty good so far.
  I had planned to plant the flowers today, but it rained all morning. The weather looks better for Monday. I'll get it done then.