They liiiiive!!!

I have not yet killed my little plants! They live! They grow! Some may even be close to thriving! (Although I can't be sure - my idea of thriving is very limited considering I find it miraculous when something I tend doesn't die straight off). I ate a leaf off of my lettuce yesterday - very lettucy! I also bought some more planters because the chard and basil finally look big enough to re-pot and I need to thin out the carrots and give the tomatoes a lot of space to grow. Whether or not my tomatoes actually produce quantities of fruit is almost secondary to the pure nostalgia of the plant. We grew tomatoes in our backyard when I was a kid and I remember helping Mom and Dad in the back yard. I loved it when Dad would pull off the tomato hornworms and let us hold them [Note: I always thought Mom and Dad just called them tomato hornworms because they didn't know what they really were - turns out everyone calls them that. I'm sorry I didn't fully credit your intelligence!]. They were huge and very soft and kind of friendly and goofy looking in a terrifying way.

Your soul is miiiine! ...To SNUGGLE!

The SMELL of tomato plants, though, that just kills me. It's such a wonderful, deep, fresh alive smell. It smells like summer and home and my family and the backyard and sun and happiness. I love watering my new tomato plants because if I even touch the leaves the smell lingers on my hands for a while.

I am very proud of myself. I like playing in the dirt!