I spent the better part of two days last week finally getting my garden planted.

It isn't wise to wait until mid May to start planting, especially if you have yet to buy your plants and seed. For instance, I drove to several suppliers in two states and still wasn't able to come up with a valid supply of seed potatoes this year. Luckily, one of my good friends had some of last year's stock left over and was willing to share with me.

I always try to plant new seed potatoes every other year to ensure a good yield, but I didn't have that option this year. The potatoes I had left from last year were of poor quality and I threw them out, thinking that I would be able to buy more. Wrong.

The owner of the last store I stopped at in Virginia said his supply had run out the day before. The Sparta stores I checked with first said they had been out of them for some time.

Luckily, there was no shortage of tomato, cabbage, broccoli or pepper plants of good quality. I ended up putting in some 30 tomato plants this year and about a dozen pepper and cabbage plants. I skipped planting any tommytoe tomatoes, since they caused me so many problems the last couple of years. Not only did they climb all over the place, they also tended to get ahead of me and a good number went unnoticed until they had fallen to the ground and made a rotten mess. They also re-seeded themselves, helping ensure a problem the next year. If I ever plant the smaller tomatoes again, it will be somewhere besides in my garden.

Last year a cantaloupe volunteer appeared around the swing set in the yard, yielding a large crop of sweet fruits in the fall. I hope to put in a watermelon and a cantaloupe or two this year and I will hope for the same results (or better). I also don't like to plant those in the garden, since they tend to grow all over the place. Once the vines get established, it's hard for me to till between rows, which leads to weed problems.

My garden usually ends up going that direction, despite my best intentions every year. Plants like beets and onions don't provide enough shade to beat back competition and plants like potatoes die off early enough in the season to allow the grass to move in later. I might try covering the potatoes with something after the plants die back. I'm also hoping to put landscaping fabric around my tomatoes, which I plan to cage or at least tie to sticks or poles this year. Of course, I also planned the same last year and watched the plants get away from me in just a couple of weeks time. Even the ones I caged weren't staked securely enough and some of them fell over. Soon I had a jungle to deal with that was nearly impossible to recover. I also had a pretty poor crop of tomatoes last year, with several of my plants dying from blight or some other similar ailment. (Of course, this year will be better).

Most of the time, I think the plants I have purchased bring in the diseases that enter my garden. My seed plants tend to do better, but it takes quite a bit more work (and forethought) to start with seed.

I always plan to start my plants in my living room or my own miniature greenhouse every year. I even have a number of glass doors that I had hoped to use for the purpose, but it just hasn't happened yet. Living in a home with no basement and no cellar, it's hard to get such things accomplished.

Anyway, even though I couldn't find any seed potatoes while doing my rounds Saturday, I was able to find all the seed, fertilizer and composted manure that I desired. (It sounds strange for a man to say he ‘desires' composted manure, doesn't it?)

Anyway, it took the better part of the day Friday to till in the soil in the garden, which had been partially overtaken by my spring weed crop. I had given the soil a ‘once over' earlier in the season, but it takes two or three passes with the tiller to really chop up the roots. And no matter how I try, I'm sure at least a few of those roots (and seeds) survived to plague me again.

I would have liked to have planted a nice spring garden this year, but it didn't get done. I don't really have an excuse. Last year I had a good crop of mustard, kale, lettuce, onions and potatoes started early. This year, I didn't even have the garden tilled properly until last week. With the early warmth followed by the odd periods of freezing weather, I'm sort of glad I didn't get anything planted. Had I planted early, that late freeze a couple weeks ago likely would have wiped me out. There's nothing more disappointing than watching young plants begin to thrive and then watching them die in the span of a cold night or two. It was hard enough to see some of my landscaping plants die from the freeze.

It was cold enough Friday night for me to run my oil heater for a few minutes the following morning to knock off the chill; it may have dropped into the mid 30s or so. The temperature outside was in the 40s when I went out to start tilling the next morning after a healthy breakfast of ham and eggs—well, at least it was a filling breakfast.

The cooler temperature make for pleasant working conditions at a job that usually ends up being hot work. I even wore long sleeves most of the day.

Saturday also proved to be a pleasant day to work outside, although it was a bit warmer that day. I spent most of the morning driving around looking for crops to plant, followed by a side trip to a dance recital. By that evening, I was able to finish up most of the rest of the garden. Sunday evening, I turned on my sprinkler to give the plants a much-needed drink of water. The soil in my garden was as dry as powder before the sprinkler did its work. I'm hoping the water got down deep enough to give the seeds a jump start. In looking at the weather statistics, this month has been about an inch and a half below normal for rainfall.

Nonetheless, I am thankful that I finally managed to get everything planted, even if it was a bit later than usual. There never seems to be enough time to get everything done. As I ponder on that, I wonder, is the problem in the time I've been given or how I have used it?

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