somebody’s watching me

All the plates are in the air, spinning on their wobbly sticks. What an exhilarating time of year Spring is. Seedlings in the ground, seedlings under lights, seeds planted, seeds sprouting.

And all the while, you know you’re at the whim of nature. So you toss the dice, commit, hedge your bets and enjoy.

Yesterday was a perfect second day to baby newly planted seedlings; cool, cloudy, calm and wet. I could see them stretching as tall as they could go, proud and happy. Just wait, little ones. Mid-80s coming up.

That’s exactly why I always try to mulch the minute seedlings are planted. That four inch carpet of leaves breaks the wind, keeps the weeds away and moderates soil temperature.

Unfortunately it does nothing for the evil mamma rabbit (I assume it was a Mamma because that’s how I roll) that I caught spying me as I stood admiring my work. It reminded me (again) that from the minute you plant till the minute you put the garden to bed, something will be trying almost as hard as you are to get to your food first.

Seeing the bunny was on of those ‘Seriously?’ moments. I had literally just finished a couple hours of planting work. As I do every year, I went inside and priced fencing. It would be cheaper to just buy several years of groceries, so no.

Next best plan: free. Over the course of time, I’ve gotten a pretty good idea of which veggies the homeboy rabbits seek out. Baby lettuce is number one. They’ve always left the cole crops for their buddies the cabbage worms. So I covered the lettuce with a hoop house and smirked at the rabbit.

For extra piece of mind, I made use of all the grand-dog sitting we do and plopped a couple of ripe scoops of doggie doo right next to the little cauliflower and broccoli seedlings. With an orange flag as a warning for the rest of us.

And then I made preparations to plant potatoes, something I know would make Peter, Floppsie, Moppsie and Cottontail very ill indeed.