Garden Update

Ahh...naptime! For the kids, anyway. I have increasingly come to mentally refer to it as "breaktime" in my busy workday. Not that work stops, per se, but I can unwind a little and catch my breath. It gives me a chance to work on things I just can't when the kids are up, like write my blog.
My garden is really sprouting now! As you can see from my picture, it doesn't look like much now, but I am proud of the bed I prepared and I think it looks pretty good. I can identify a few different flowers already: Bachelor Buttons, Calendulas, Marigolds and California Poppies. Yesterday I planted seeds for cherry tomatoes in the area I ran out of wildflower seeds and had a very low density of sprouts. At least the little footprints turned out useful after all; I planted the seeds in those depressions because they hold the water in a little puddle and stay wet long after the high spots dry out in this warm weather. We are now in the mid to upper 70's, with lows about 50. It shouldn't take long for those tomatoes to sprout. I found I have a tomato volunteer in my potted plant I received as a gift from Cassie's funeral. It is one of those green leaf plants that make those runners down the side and are near impossible to kill. I just can't remember what those plants are called. My tomato volunteer may do the trick, however; it is thriving in that pot while the plant looks like it is struggling. I thought that it was a marigold at first, but I smelled the familiar aroma of the tomato plant the last time I watered it. I have no idea how that got there; I give the kids a lot of cherry tomatoes from the farmers market and a seed from one of those must have somehow got in there either from their grubby little hands or one of the times I had to sweep up the dirt from one of the many times they pulled it onto the floor. I guess I'll see when it flowers and sets fruit if it is a cherry tomato or a full size tomato plant. I am in a quandry about it though since the tomato loves sun, and the green leafy plant gets burned pretty easily with a lot of sun so I need to make a decision as to which I want nurture. I suppose I can make a cutting from it since those plants are famous for being able to root easily from a cutting and start a whole new pot once it roots. That way I can feel I've kept it. Anyway, I hope that planting the tomatoes in with the wildflowers will help the pollination of the tomatoes; last year I had a lot of flowers, but very few set into fruits. If I still have a problem with pollination, I will put out a few old cans of Coke; the bees seem conditioned to be attracted to those judging from the swarms around my bags of cans for recycling, and the fact I cannot bring a can out without attracting a few even for a few minutes. My sister suggested last year a lack of bees might have been my problem.
Yesterday, I finally took down the outside Christmas lights from the back porch (it's the only place actually visible from the street, since I live in the back of a duplex) and I am getting mentally prepared to pack away Christmas until next season. Losing my mother just a few months ago really took the shine off the season for me, but I did persevere and did bake cookies and decorate. Now I have to psych myself up to take it all down, even though it took halfway into December to put it all up. Declaring Christmas officially over was always a little sad for me, but this year it is a little extra sad because it was the first without my mom and I will think about that while I put it all away. I promised a picture of the advent tree when I was done; all I have left to do is finish making the star for the top. I made the star shaped frame and support, and right after I finish this post I will go finish it; it is the very last thing I need to do before I have run out of excuses for not putting away the Christmas stuff. I'm planning on doing that tomorrow, while having Pres-Elect Barack Obama (woo hoo!) on TV for his inauguration ceremony. I have the pre-inauguration festivities on TV right now, to capture the ambient joyfulness of the occasion. Go Obama!