Spring is Springing

I love Spring.
It is sunny skys here with temperatures in the 70s. Of course, it still is Houston, so the humidity is hovering at 90%. But who cares! After a long, cold winter I am just so glad to see the sun.

Last weekend I planted tomates. Growing tomatoes is something that I've attempted in the past. Bugs attacked and I was over zealous with my soap-and-baking soda-organic-home-gardening insecticide. The plants may have recovered if I hadn't then gone on vacation and left them for 10 days without water in the arid Los Angeles sunshine.

So, this year I did two things differently. First, I went to a local plants dealer specialist instead of buying my plants at Home Depot. The tomato guy told me that I could use the one gallon pots until the ground was warm enough to put the plants directly in the yard. I thought about this, but when I dug into the muddy clay that is Houston soil I realized why people go to the trouble of putting in raised beds. I am just putting the plants into 20 gallon pots. The tomated guy seemed to think that a late spring leading into a hot summer might prevent good ground growing anyway. Second, I actually bought a spray bottle so if I do have to do some insect prevention I will mist the plants instead of drown them.

The plants are all set up in a corner of the courtyard. None of the community cats seem to be interested so that's a good sign. They look great and my hands look ragged. Since I'm a working girl again, I'm treating myself to a little welcome spring mani pedi this weekend. So sandals weather here I come!