Gardening is not in my blood. When I was growing up, my mother would put avocado pits in little jars and grow plants from them, but that was about the extent of my family’s horticultural pursuits. I used to claim that I had a black thumb and killed every plant I came across. Surprisingly, though, there are more than a few living and blooming plants around my house right now. I’ve got a perennial garden (albeit it looks like a 5-year-old planted it) in front of my house. I’ve got a raised bed in the back that will hopefully serve up a bounty of edibles in the near future. I’ve got two raspberry shrubs elsewhere in the back. And I’m even trying my hand at composting.

The only problem is that I don’t have enough time to be a gardener. Consequently, I do everything very hurriedly and frenetically, using a myriad of makeshift, inexpensive, sometimes broken, and often children’s gardening tools. I’ve moved countless perennials countless times because I didn’t put them in the right place the first (second or third) time. I’ve chopped into the sprinkler hose at least twice now due to over-zealous shoveling. My lettuce bolted before we could eat it all last summer, and my first batch of compost didn’t look at all right and had to be tossed.

With that said, my alium bulbs are blooming, the raspberry shrubs seem to be spreading, most of my perennials are coming back (despite being trimmed into oblivion last fall), and my peas and spinach are already poking their heads up out of the dirt! Now I need to plant my squash, clear the rocks along the back wall and plant herbs, fill in some empty spaces in the front, and turn the compost bin – again. Gardening might not be in my blood, but it certainly is catching!

The ideas, images and ink for the month are:

ideas summer’s start, bare feet on grass

images gardens in bloom

ink delphinium blue, foxglove pink, daylily orange

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