Gardening isn’t my thing. Not because I don’t like it, but because I forget to do important tending activities. Watering, for example.

In my house, only plants like spider plants survive because they can live on air for weeks.

But every spring I get the same itch that the rest of you get to grow something and make the world a greener place.

Yesterday I burned a few gallons of fossil fuels on my way to a big box store where I picked up a trunkload of  cheap plants.

But the pots are supposed to biodegrade, so it’s ok.

My mom’s visiting, which is great, because she has a vision when it comes to these sorts of things.

Here's the new planter and garden.

Instead of letting me put the vegetables with the strawberries (which she calls “aphid magnets”), she helped me peel some huge branches that came down during the winter ice storm so we could make a new planter area.

We cut them with a hand saw, which sucked. I felt like Dick Proenneke. My arm still hurts.

If you don’t know who Dick Proenneke is, he’s the Alaska guy from the Alone in the Wilderness video (on PBS all the time) who makes his own cabin by hand and lives by himself until he’s really old, surviving in the harsh Alaskan wilderness.

Anyway, I could never be that guy.

Mainly, I just want the plants to grow magically and produce good food, while I sit around feeding my chickens and reading.

Guess it’s a good thing I live in a rainy-ish climate. Mother Nature does my work for me.

I’ll let you know if anything grows.

P.S. Don’t you think those chickens are cute!?