Day: March 17, 2006

I have pea-envy.
B.& IT showed me their pea seedings growing on their window sill and they are lovely. Me? I don’t have as many seedlings going and my peas are small and tiny. Now I know that peas are not a plant you’re supposed to transplant. I know I’m supposed to directly sow them into the ground. But we transplanted pea seelings into the ground last year and they turned out fine. I put a few seedlings in pots yesterday, as well as some pea seeds.
I’ve got a number of seedlings and things going on. Outside in the backyard I planted some onion, shallot and spinach seeds. Also in the backyard I have a few plants that survived the winter quite nicely. The pansies in the hanging basket and one of the pots are flowering with purple and very edible flowers. The winter thyme is doing well but the French thyme, not so hot, I’m going to have to cut back the dead looking parts. The daylilies seem to be doing well, but I need to transplant them into a bigger pot, as will I need to do the same with the rosemary. Inside I have a large pot I’m going salad greens. I plan to put it outside once the temperatures get stable.
I’m waiting for the last frost (need to look that up) before I put a lot of stuff back outside. I have a small scraggly basil plant that would die in a frost. There are also the laurel bays that I’m keeping inside. And of course the many seedlings.
I haven’t done a thing with the front, except sow some peas. The blueberry bushes, or sticks, as they look less like bushes and more like sticks, are begining to bud. I want to tear up the front yard. Get rid of all the non-edibles and the weeds. Maybe replant with chard and squash and more veggies. Or just let the peppermint take over the whole yard.

The thing I like about living in the city is that I do walk everywhere. I walk to the Giant, the corner store, the metro, the library (back when it was open), the donut shop (only to find that they are out of anything glazed) and the bike shop. Walking, besides being some form of excercise, is a good way to run into neighbors, who are also walking, and take in small changes in the neighborhood along the way.
Last week I was in Florida for my sister’s wedding, an event my half-sister (the wedding planner) took over. All I know I was just following whatever orders I was given that week. Anyway, one of the orders was to show up at a particular church my dad’s side of the family attends. When I was a kid we walked to the church. When I was a kid I walked to the church, the elementary school, the middle school, the corner store, the fried chicken place, the beauty supply store, grandma’s, basically a lot of places. So I figured I would walk from mom’s (who now attends a different church that she needs to drive to) to the church. Walking to a place I’ve walked to hundreds of times in the past just seemed to amaze everyone. *eyes rolling* It was strange and a bit annoying to confront this mindset that walking…. ‘who walks?’ mentality of my car-dependent relatives.
But I did witness one good thing in Florida, that I wish we had more of in DC, more clearly marked bike lanes. I saw a lot of bike sized (too small for cars to take over) bike lanes on a majority of the roads. I also saw a number of people using those lanes. Yes, mind you most of the cyclists were helmet-less old codgers, but they where traveling along on long lonely stretches of road in the bike lane.