It had been a freezing winter and early spring here in the Pacific Northwest.

I went out early, but not as early in the year as my fellow gardeners. Many gardens were rich with winter vegetables but my plot lay dormant and waiting. I prepared my salad plot and planted lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets, of which only the beets and spinach came up. The following weeks unexpected snow and ice and freezing wind put a damper on my Southwestern spirit. I stayed as warm as I could indoors. Calm, calm until warmer weather.

About June it was warm enough to work outside. I harvested my spinach and beets and bought a grape vine and planted that and started weeding. Sixteen hours later my garden was cleaned up and ready for manure. I planted some butternut squash here and there and some corn. My compost had a good start and if a bit bare in comparison with my neighbor gardens it was neat, well arranged and the orange daylillys were huge and their blossoms forming the promise of lovely large blooms. The camomile that I had planted last summer were three feet tall. I harvested them for tea and hung them upsidedown in the basement for tea and aroma.