the early bird...

gets more than worms.

this morning from my window i saw the birds picking and poking in the bean bed in the garden. earlier in the week i noticed that a new bean plant pushing up out from under the thick soil with its leaves trying hard to shed the heavy red seed shell. but yesterday it was gone. plucked out of the ground. a small hole in it's place. this morning i was resolved to try again, plant some more seeds so that the birds could have some as they hunt and peck for worms.

this year's garden has been all about second tries.
the cucumber seedlings the strongest of the lot early on then dead. no real explanation. the soil too rich not enough drainage? left out in the sun too long - burnt? left out too long in the day till the sun already gone -- frozen? whatever the case -- dead on their stems with leaves shriveled, they stopped trying. start over -- decided to do a direct seeding in the ground, bought a few hot-house plants to plant side by side to have some fruit in july, and planted seedlings inside as well.

tomatoes are now strong and thriving in the sunny days -- and we have double the number of seedlings as we have space in the garden because early on it was unclear that anything would rise from my first planting. i even bought new seeds thinking that my storage of last years was lacking.

almost everything is in the ground now. we are waiting for the soil to warm up for tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. we are eating salad every day: arugula, japanese cabbage, mizuna or vlita, crysanthemum greens, and crinkly cress.