I am giddy

and feeling flushed with success.

After getting some wildly different advice from a number of people about my leek seeds, I was convinced I had killed them. I kept watching for any sign of life from the little cups of earth, but nothing showed up.

Tonight, though....tonight I checked on my cups of dirt and saw a tiny shoot of green. And another and another.





I did not kill my leeks! They are actually growing! Now all my fussing over them, and putting them outside in the sun, and bringing them back in at night, and covering them with saran wrap is finally paying off!

How does your garden grow?

Monkey and I are going to have a vegetable garden this year. I've been all talk on this subject in the past, but today, I mailed my soil sample to the UCONN Home & Garden Center, so they can let me know exactly how to improve my soil for veggie production, and yesterday evening, Monkey and I started our leeks.

We have a tiny yard, so we're going to have a small garden. I did a little research, and we're going to have raised beds - I'm still undecided about whether to have 4 of them or 5 of them. Our selected crops for this first time around are:

leeks
asparagus (which is why we might have 5 beds, since they stay in the same place for 20 years)
peas
green beans
tomatoes
cucumbers
radishes
peppers
carrots
and probably a small herb garden

I am known to have a black thumb, so I'm going to rely on Monkey's youth and enthusiasm and experience helping our neighbors with their vegetable garden to get me through this. We're not bothering with zucchini because everyone and their brother grows that and we always seem to end up with a brown paper bag full of them when they are ripe. I hope to update with pictures, but my camera doesn't seem to want to let go of any of the pictures I take anymore, so that might not happen.