New Life

Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. Everywhere you look, it's green. It's not just any green either. It's that brand new green that you only see for a few weeks each year.
My dad was nice enough to help me start my first garden when he was down a couple weeks ago. It's nothing earth shattering really. A couple of tomato plants, a couple of pepper plants and a planter full of sweet basil and oregano. But it's my first, and I'm very excited about it. I've been watching my dad grow his own garden in North Carolina for years, so hopefully at this point, between him and my 1st grade Sunday school teacher Mrs. Henderson, I've picked up a thing or two and won't let these poor plants die.
Dad helped me prepare the ground by splitting "shovel time" with me. We had to dig through the infamous, and ridiculously hard, "Georgia red clay." After we got a few holes dug, we mixed in some nutrient rich garden soil. We folded that all in and then set out the plants. I also put a small wire fence around the area so that my lovely dogs don't kill it all. After a good watering, we were done. The picture above was taken Saturday. Things seem to be going well so far. The first little tomato has popped out and I think we'll be able to start using some of that basil in some recipes very soon.
Seeing that this weekend got me thinking about my little tomato that's on the way. The latest update is that Ashley is 34 weeks and a day, and is on her last few pills of Terbutaline. We go back to the doc on Thursday and we'll see what happens then, but at this point, we think she's going to be off the medicine for good and we'll be letting nature take its course starting this weekend. That means we could be parents sooner than we had previously thought. That's definitely exciting and terrifying stuff.
Thanks for the help in the garden, dad. I'm looking forward to sharing your green thumb secrets with the newest member of the family.