I will dig and then fill ditches if anyone is willing to pay me to do so.

15 in 15

My 15 Favourite books in 15 minutes:
Tom Robbins "Jitterbug Perfume"
Huxley "The Perennial Philosophy"
Huxley "Island"
Bowles "The Sheltering Sky"
Levitt and Dubner "Freakonomics"
Kevin Phillips "American Theocracy"
Daniel Dennet "Darwin's Dangerous Idea"
Pollan "The Botany of Desire"
Pollan "The Omnivore's Dilemna"
Dawkins "The Ancestors Tale"
Adams "The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
Jared Diamond "Collapse"
Brian Greene "The Fabric of the Cosmos"
Faulkner "The Sound and the Fury"
Hemingway "The Sun Also Rises"

Summer

In honor of Summer and my favorite American satirist, a qoute: "Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education." -- Mark Twain.
I got a Cercis from the woods folks and it is going to make it! My pole beans are climbing the porch and what a great idea that turned out to be. The leaves face out for a full on foliage extravaganza, while the flowers (and, of course, the subsequent beans) are at waist height for easy picking. the heirlooms all worked out, even the eggplant (in pots), and I have fennel umbels as large as my head and at eye level for ease of viewing the orgy of insect activity. It has been cool and wet, prompting one to question the global warming hypothesis, but only if one has a complete lack of understanding of it in the first place. Very few things worthy of note have happened to me personally. Check out Yew Dell if you haven't yet, the link is on the right under suggestions.

Im an arrogant sob

They won't care what you know until they know that you care. I got that as advice today and the more I think about it the more I realize that it is solid and wonderful advice for those of us who are trying to develop an interest in education in this country. I am guilty of frequently reminding people that I'd rather live in a country where the culture already values education and educators as much as entertainment and entertainers but I have been remiss in making people aware of how much I care about America and how willing I am to suffer on her behalf. We can change things folks, we have to.

Finally, indoor corn.

If you haven't seen or heard of dot pots yet (OMRI certified seed starting pots) please take some time to check them out this year. I have a brother who also starts his garden seeds inside and he was thoroughly unimpressed with these because the equivalent jiffy pots were so much cheaper. Let me assure you he is very wrong. These pots actually do what they claim, as a result anyone can start sweet corn indoors 14-21 days before they intend to plant. Those of you who would like to try 3-4 different sweet corn varieties this year without cross pollination ruining your efforts, this is precisely the temporal spacing you need and you can still plant all of your varieties on the first day the soil is warm enough! Sowing corn directly has always been recommended (even by experimental gardeners like myself) because of pots constraining root growth. No longer a worry, the roots of eggplant even grow through these pots. I have tomatoes at v3-v4 that have little roots sticking out already. This means I could have started them as much as a week later. That's a week of electricity for grow lights I don't have to pay for.
You can all help tell this company we appreciate their incredible invention by purchasing a few for yourselves for next year. Spread the word. Happy spring everyone. My Hyacinth/viola/tulip purple-white bed is a real stunner. Sometimes I have some pretty good ideas. The lady laughed at me when I bought her last purple pansies in December and she gave me a huge discount. A little mulch and a southern exposure and they overwinter like bulbs and what a display of color. Anyway, I hope you are all well and gardening your butts off.