in which i undertake something completely new: my first garden

I have started my first garden, perhaps more accurately called a gardenette.

There's a very small strip of dirt between the house and the patio. There was once a huge plum tree there, but it died. It's also the former site of this --

-- but sadly, no more.

That left one small rose bush planted by a previous tenant. So we bought this --

-- some soil, fertilizer, and a telescoping garden tool to protect my knees. We picked up a little of this --

-- to protect against these --

(If you look closely, you can see Tala is sprinkled with mud.)

And now we have this --

-- some annuals on one side, and two tomato plants on the other. A tiny garden, and enough for me.

When I was growing up, my father did a lot of gardening, and my siblings and I were always pressed into involuntary labour. I loved my indoor plants in our old apartments, and I always imagined that if I had some outdoor space, I would garden. But when I finally got a backyard, the reality turned out to be different. I'm too busy, I have bad knees, and I don't want to rearrange my life to make gardening a priority.

But a little gardening... that seems like a good thing. All the local-eating advice emphasizes gardening, even the tiniest bit (which this is!). So here's another opportunity to reject my old all-or-nothing thinking - you know, the little voice that tells either we dig up half the yard and dedicate huge amounts of time to a massive garden, or I cannot garden at all. And maybe even some homegrown tomatoes in the bargain.

Of course, Tala is interested in gardens. Our neighbours have a beautiful vegetable garden and she likes to hang around --

-- hoping for a little of this.