Escaping to the Garden

I find that although I have not always had the greenest of thumbs, putting my hands in dirt often eases the weight of the world on my shoulders. I have also learned that with practice you can make your thumb greener. Mine, at this point, seems to be spottily/seasonally green...

My garden has also taught me that a trip to a magical nursery can be a great date. Mr. Smyth joined me at the fabulous Annie's Annuals over the weekend. It is the strangest drive through the heart of Richmond to get to the odd dirt road where Annie's Annuals is hiding. Their selection includes gorgeous flowers, rare California natives, and intriguing edibles. Not to mention the adorable Radio Flyer wagons that you get to load your baby plants into. They even have resident chickens!

We roamed the acre of incredible little plants. Each plant has a photo of what it will look like as it matures, a summary of the growing conditions, and how the plant can be used. The people who work there are the most helpful plant people I have ever met. And if that wasn't enough they hold free classes and talks (which I have heard about, but not yet attended).

The only part of this date that is more fun than dreaming up a garden while wandering together is actually planting the selections that made it into your trunk. Our trunk ended up with mostly edibles. Someday I am hoping that my thumb turns a shade of green that allows me to have a huge edible garden! For now we have kale, shard, cilantro, walking onions, and strawberries. For the first time we will have two colors of strawberries in the garden, red and white. I can't wait to see how that turns out. I also couldn't resist a couple California native lupinus varieties.

They don't look like this yet, but hopefully they will eventually...

Now the trick is keeping them alive!