garden surprise

I was working in my garden and flower beds today when I made two pleasant and unexpected discoveries. The first was that my peas, which I thought had died in the unseasonal cold snap a few weeks ago, in fact had managed to live up to their reputation as a cold-weather crop, and had survived. I didn't have to replant them after all.

The second nice little surprise was about a dozen lettuce plants that have started growing on their own in my garden area. See, some foul fiend stole all the leaves off the lettuce in our garden last summer, and although the plants survived, they never really grew edible leaves again. They did, however, eventually flower and go to seed, and some of those seeds apparently survived when I turned compost into the soil last autumn.

So after moving a half-dozen or so lettuce plants to one of my flower beds and concealing them with violets, I find myself much further along in the gardening game this year than I expected. I even have an unopened packet of lettuce seeds that I had bought to use this year.

Now if I can just find some place to plant my walnut and willow saplings ...