La buena tierra

This evening, I took my small black trowel and broke the good and yielding earth to plant my first green living things of the year and it was exhilarating. I planted six tiny yellow sweet-banana peppers, African basil and rosemary.

Those small root-bound plants went into the large flower bed that will be my main herb garden this year, accompanied by the tons of dill and industrial quantities of mint, both of which have been perennials in this garden for a long, long time, judging by the way they reproduce like bunnies every spring.

I also have thyme, spindly asparagus, rhubarb and strawberries growing in the back huerto, behind our crumbling garage. And I hope to plant some cilantro and maybe some jalapeños later on.

I'm not a great gardener but I love gardening (although I detest weeding). Born and bred city-girl that I am, I didn't really get to do any gardening until I arrived in Ohio five years ago and found myself with lots of time in my hands before I eventually decided to return to school to get another set of graduate degrees.

I didn't know the first thing about gardening but I bought a few books and listened carefully to my mother-in-law, whose green thumb is famous and whose profusion of flowers is legendary.

It was my mother-in-law who accompanied me today to their favorite West Virginia greenhouse for my first plant shopping spree of the year, and I was like a little girl in a Barbie store (well, at least like the little girl I was in a Barbie store).

I showed some restraint and, apart from the herbs and a gorgeous neon-red geranium my mother-in-law found for me, I only got one large flat of powder pink impatiens (I like the Puerto Rican name of miramelindas better). I also brought home these tiny cone-shaped flowers I used to buy in Puerto Rico, which over there are called brujitas because the flowers look like little witch-faces in shades of white and deep purple with bursts of intense yellow (I found out that its scientific name is Torenia fournieri, or Clown Face or Wishbone Flower in English). Those I'll plant tomorrow.

Today's late-in-the-day labor also yielded one flower bed now clear of the pesky weeds with four more to go for tomorrow (I find it incredible how the late frosts in April almost killed my red Japanese maple and my bleeding hearts but the weeds were como si nada). The eye-candy geranium is also now resting snug and comfy in a beautiful planter.

I feel accomplished, more so today because I got my hands dirty and planted living things into the earth, than because yesterday marked the end of my first year of teaching at a small liberal arts college. But just like with teaching, there's something intimately rewarding about disturbing the soil and seeing living things thrive under your care and your touch.

I'm ready for the challenge and the reward. Let the growing season begin.