Content Exhaustion

It's amazing how priorities change when planting season arrives. Cooking dinner hasn't seemed quite as important to me of late as soil, composted manure, tomato cages, watering, and companion planting. Last night, grilled cheese sandwiches with chicken vegetable soup were the special of the day. Thank goodness I had the soup in the freezer. And I have to admit, they were much better than the takeout we got the night before. Watching TV, even the news, is non-existent during the day, and the few shows I've tried to watch in the evenings end up becoming background noise in my dreams because I fall asleep within minutes of settling down on the couch to watch them.

We've been working hard in the garden trying to get things planted as quickly as possible. The front yard is just about done, complete with 57 organic heirloom tomatoes from seedling sales at The Little River Market Garden in Little Haiti and Bee Heaven Farm in the Redlands, 7 organic heirloom eggplants from the same seedling sales, Bibb lettuce, chives, banana peppers, ancho chili peppers, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, Cubanelle peppers, kale, swiss chard, mustard greens, carrots, celery, a few onions, and assorted herbs. We also picked up some Seminole pumpkins from the seedling sale at Fairchild Tropical Gardens, but they need space to grow, so will have to wait, dutifully watered, till the backyard garden is ready for them.

Speaking of the backyard garden, at least we don't have to weed the beds. The chickens have taken on that duty this year. They've done a masterful job of aerating, fertilizing, and preparing them for us. The goal for this weekend is to figure out how we're going to keep them out of the beds once they're planted. I think we've settled on fence posts topped with metal cones so they can't use them as a landing point and the tallest chicken wire we can find. It seems the most economical way to go about it. I just hope it proves to be successful.

While my 47-year-old bones are weary and my muscles ache from lugging around 25-pound bags of soil, the weariness and aches are comforting. It's a content exhaustion.