It stopped raining this week, and we had a series of sunny days. Sunny, but still so cold! I had to water the winter veggies for the first time in over a month. As I approached the main planting box, with the snap peas and fava beans, I thought to myself, "Well, the winter garden was a bust. It's just such a shame!" But that didn't stop me from watering the plants.




As I stood there, I could smell the sweet blooms from the plants. I had no idea they would smell so great! Like flowers, really. These things bloomed like crazy, but we just never got any beans or peas to grow on them. If I learned anything from starting my garden last spring, it is that you just have to pretend as if it's working ~ water, weed, hope; water, weed, hope; water, weed, hope ~ and then suddenly, it does work! I had planted my tomatoes in April, yet they didn't sprout from the yellow buds until July; they didn't turn red until late-August. At any time, in the four months it took me to harvest my first tomato, I could have stopped taking care of them, and I think it would have been justified more than once. But I learned to keep taking care of them, and I was rewarded with all the tomatoes, sauce, salsa, and cucumber-tomato salads any girl could hope for.

As I was standing there, enjoying the scent and reflecting that winter-gardening just turned out not to be a viable option, I noticed that there were snap peas poking out of the trellis!






And just like that, I noticed they were everywhere! These were virtually invisible to me moments before, and now I couldn't believe how many I was finding, hiding in and around the leaves.






Gardening is so magical! As I moved among the different plots, continuing to water and looking with new eyes, I could begin to imagine pulling up garlic and onions for cooking.






I saw my herb garden differently, too. Previously too disappointed by the lack of basil growing there, I only just noticed how prolific the cilantro and flat parsley have become.






And two of the four plots of lettuce refused to grow at all. But suddenly, and quite pleasantly, I have a dozen or more heads of butter lettuce that are very nearly ready to become dinner salad!

I'm so sorry, winter garden, that I ever doubted you!