Planting Fool

I planted onions, two kinds of lettuce, dill, parsley, rosemary and basil last Friday. Here are some lessons I learned:

1. One pack of onions is not one plant, it is many tiny plants. Buying two packs doubles the amount of tiny plants. I will have the mother load of onions in about 60 days if they grow. Duke has offered onion recipes, but if anyone wants onions, let me know. I have two rows planted, which equals about 40 heads.
2. Gardening is hard work! My hamstrings were killing me for two days afterward. I'm either getting old or the weights I've been lifting at the gym are not doing me any good.
3. Four inches apart is actually a lot closer than you think.

After my planting frenzy on Friday, my parents came up bright and early on Sunday to help with the rest of the yard. My mom was a raking and weeding fiend, which was a huge help. They brought my new lawn mower up so I could finally mow the ghetto lawn. I was so embarassed by my tall grass!

The new lawn mower is self propelled, which theoretically means it will be easier and faster for me to mow the lawn. Um, not so much when the grass rivals that found in a meadow. Oh and here's a tip: don't engage the self propelled thing when you are turning. Bad things will happen! (In my case, it was spinning around with the lawn mower a few times - awesome sight for the neighbors, I'm sure.)

After the yard was mowed and everything was suitably weeded and raked, we headed to Lowes. My mom decided I needed a hoe, a wheelbarrow, some shurbs, impatients, some other kind of flower and a gas grill. I thought my dad was going to shoot her as we were trying to fit everything into his SUV. Oh and can I just admit that I had a good chuckle carrying the hoe all over Lowes? In my head I kept thinking, "I'm the ho with the hoe, bitches!"

After we made it back to Boalsburg in one piece (and miraculously didn't manage to have anything fall out of the back of the SUV on 322), my mom and I started digging holes for the shrubs. My dad supervised from the Oasis, as we decided we had stressed him out enough for one day. My mom was doing the digging and just couldn't believe the amount of rocks we found. Um, meet Mount Nittany and Tussey Mountain. I'm pretty sure that the rocks in the soil are the result of Boalsburg once being a part of this mountain range.

Once everything was planted, my parents headed for home. A few days later, temperatures dipped down into the mid 30s. Fearing for my new children (the food growing in the garden), I set about moving my pots inside, covering the basil I planted in the garden with a bed sheet (conviently anchored by the rocks we dug out of my yard) and covering the impatients. I decided the best way to cover them would be to use blue plastic cups. It looked like I had some raging kegger and all the cups wound up in my flower bed!!

The Oasis is a very enjoyable experience now that all of the furniture is here. The gas grill is a welcomed addition. I now have the desire to grill everything in sight. I stocked up on meats yesterday at the grocery store and plan to make some kabobs tomorrow night for dinner. I'm saving the drunk chicken for when Laura and Court visit in June.

I'll post some pictures later, after my camera decides to cooperate.