Working in the garden... So tired.

I've been feeling very well and was excited for Spring and the beginnings of a garden. A couple weeks ago, Lance worked some compost into the soil and we were getting the garden beds ready. This weekend we went to the Seattle Tilth sale and the plants were beautiful. I bought many plant starts, and we had room for most of them and had to make room in the back for the rest. Here's a picture of my tiny little fig tree...I am so excited for figs in 5 years. That wasn't just sarcasm - I am looking forward to the day when I have too many figs to know what to do with and start giving them away. But as you can see, it will take around 5 years for that to happen:



The friends I met yesterday at our Chronic Illness Support Group were jealous that I had the energy to work in the yard. Lance and I planted kiwi, grapes, raspberries from my family's organic garden, a good variety of greens, cauliflower, asparagus, and the list goes on. We ran to Home Depot to pick up supplies for a cloche and worked until 8:30 PM on Saturday with headlamps on to get as much as we could in the ground, and then I dug a little on Sunday before realizing I was really tired. Well, today I have to relearn (hopefully learn anyhow) the lesson that just because you feel like you can do anything, it does not mean you should. My head hurts, my stomach is a mess, I'm really tired, and now I have a fever. Waaaaaaaaaaaah. I even embarrassed myself getting ill on the way to a class (we won't go into too many details) and was late. Tonight I think I'll just have some juice to cut back on the digestion, but will have to bring something more substantial to work. I don't think I can work and fast at the same time...I get dizzy really easily and am dog tired. Lupus is tricky. Some days I feel really well, but if I try to take full advantage of the days I feel well, I tend to work myself into illness again. My illness keeps trying to teach me moderation and I have been a very poor student! I need to remind myself I am so fortunate I can still work and do very well for the most part - and I've been feeling stronger and today is just a small blip on the radar.

On to more pleasant things... Saturday I attended a Permaculture class at Raw Vegan Source. It made me rethink the placement of many of my plants, and I hope to start composting so I can do things the right way the next growing season. For now, I'm jumping into gardening full throttle and plan to try to learn from my mistakes. I'm lucky to have a husband who sees the value in gardening and is excited to help in order to reduce our pricey grocery bill.

Because it has still been dipping into the low forties or high thirties some nights, we built a couple of cloches to protect the lettuce and more tender greens. We've had some nice sun, so I'm hoping it's a little warmer under there. We did a REALLY simple design of PVC pipe bent into semi-circles and plunged into the ground, then covered with transparent plastic and weighted down with bricks. It's not easily moved on and off, but it's easy enough to lift the edging and water when needed. The only thing that really bothers me is the plastic...I'll have to brainstorm better materials for down the road, but it's a hard one to get around. Here is a picture of a cloche:
Lance and Champ really seemed to enjoy themselves in the garden, and hung out while I was in a class and running errands. Champ was a good little sentry and was very patient with the stupid humans playing in the dirt.

I hope the Humizyme does its thing with our city dirt and we have awesome, mineral rich greens to share down the road. I'm turning into a weirdo going through the seed packets I have trying to decide how to fit in more plants. Lance is beginning to fear for his lawn. Muaahahahaha.....

Time to go nurse the beginnings of a migraine, put on the heat packs, and curl into some blankets.