• Put plants in the ground today. Took about 2 hours to prepare the ground in the little triangle out from my dining room bay window. Just turned 120 pounds of manure into the ground that laid fallow the past year. Went away for a while. Came back and was greeted by my friend Dennis Forslund. He's truly a city dweller, but absolutely has a connection with the earth. All day I meant to check the weather - see if freezing weather is expected again. After everything was planted, I finally checked the weather. No freezing weather for this following week!

• Planted one of each of the 6 varieties of tomatoes in the raised back bed of the garden. Planted two of each of the 3 varieties of peppers in the front bed. Ringed the whole [currently planted] area with marigolds: tomato-friendly orange alternating with fluffy, happy yellow. All of the tomatoes and peppers got covered with half-gallon milk jugs. Thoroughly soaked the ground.

• Before putting the plants into the vegetable bed, Dennis filled 3 window boxes with pansies. We bought six 6-packs for $1.85 each at Wal-mart. You'll be seeing more receipts from my shopping today. Please bear with me.