GARDEN!

Lately, the hubby and I have been paying some special attention to our yard. We feel pretty obligated, since all of our neighbors mow their lawns like every single day. We live in a fancy neighborhood! It makes us feel pretty un-classy to have a nasty unkept overgrown yard, so we did something about it! Our backyard had grass that was SO tall (I'm estimating almost 2 feet, seriously) that we actually had to call our family for help, because we couldn't get the lawnmower to drive over it. They advised us to lift the front of the lawnmower up while driving it around, and it worked great. I think Ham is really going to miss the long grass. She thought it was a jungle, especially made for cats. She found a whole bunch of misquito-eater bugs in there, and probably a few spiders and the like as well. She tried to catch them, but I don't think it really worked out for her.
Last night (this might seem off-subject, but it's really not) I managed to get $50.00 in tips while I was at work, which is AMAZING, because I never EVER get tips. I think in total, I've gotten tips like 5 times during the 3 years I've worked at this job. Anyway, this morning, Christopher went to work pretty early, leaving me all alone with a fancy $50.00 sitting in my pocket, so to celebrate my tip-getting I went and spent every bit of it on PLANTS FOR THE BACK YARD!!!! And also some dirt! I was being a real manly-girl about it, and hauled it all by myself, even though the dirt was 50 pounds a bag. A guy in a big ol' truck even offered to give me a ride home so I didn't have to put the dirt in my little honda, but I declined. I was doing this on my own. (I was also not getting kidnapped, something that always crosses my mind when strangers are overly helpful at me.) I drove my little car home, balancing my plants in the passenger seat, and TOTALLY took over the back yard with plants. It looks really fantastic. Ham and Samus watched me through the screen door the whole time. I emptied out ALL of the pots and planters that were on our back porch, most of them were about half full of styrofoam peanuts......I'm not really sure what's up with that, but it was nasty, and I filled them all with "Black Gold" potting soil. Then, (the fun part!) I planted all of my pretty new plants!! I put lavender in the first planter, which I chose because it's fun to pick and bring inside to make your house smell reeeeally good, and because it looks pretty nice all year round, and in the other planters I put tomatoes, jalapenos, and basil! I realised after I planted them that if I'd chosen cilantro instead of basil I could have had my own back yard salsa, but that's okay. I use basil a lot more frequently than cilantro anyway. I had a really good time just being outside and enjoying the sunny weather. Our little temperature-machine read 86 degrees, but it felt a lot warmer to me when I was in the sun. I even got a little bit of a sunburn! It doesn't hurt though, and it's just a little bit of pink on my cheeks and shoulders, so I'm okay. It usually takes a LOT of sun to give me a burn, so I was suprised by how affected I was, but this was really my first time out in the sun this year. My birthday is on June 1st, (soon!) and I think/hope Christopher will take me to the beach, so maybe this sun prepared me, and I won't get burned any more! My fur-babies were really patient with me while I planted all those exciting things outside. I knew they wanted to come out and smell them and eat them, but it took so long I didn't get a chance to bring them outside before I had to go to work. Luckily, I thought ahead, and had a planty suprise for them! CATNIP!!! I've had a dying vine-plant inside for a long time. I think I got it the same week Christopher and I first moved into our apartment. It's survived two re-pottings, one fall from a shelf, and the cats nibbling off every new growth for as long as it could stand. This morning I watered it, and FOUR more leaves fell off, leaving only three, one of which was severely mangled by one of the cats. It was time for it to go. I replaced it with the catnip. This one is made for cats to eat, so I won't yell at them when they do. I figure if they leave it alone enough, I may be able to dry some and make them toys with it. I'm really excited for all my plants to grow, and I hope I get some yummy tomatoes SOON! I LOVE tomatoes!!! I think the jalapeno plant will be the first thing to be ready, though, because it already has little buds on it! Yaaaaaay little buds! Yay gardening!