Superb Garden

I planted an outdoor herb garden, mice be damned. As you can see, I now have a terra cotta container of lovely purple sage, English thyme, dark opal basil, chives, and Italian parsley.

Over the weekend I helped my neighbor plant rows of cabbage and eight different kinds of lettuce. The cabbage rows were easy to plant; we measured the space between each plant and simply alternated between red cabbage and green cabbage in an orderly fashion. In contrast, planting the eight varieties of lettuce was stressful. I was charged with the task of loosely arranging the plants so they would look natural, "like they just growed there," as they say back in my neighbor's Kansas. Because my rule-loving lawyer brain struggled to implement planned chaos, planting the lettuce rows took three times as long as the cabbage rows.

This week I'm planting cabbage and lettuce on a smaller scale in an antique tub on my patio. The weather here in Laguna Beach has been beautiful--overcast and in the mid-60s. My family back in Minnesota shivered through the first snowfall of the season yesterday! I guess they won't be gardening any time soon.