There’s not an experienced gardener or farmer who doesn’t have tales of failure and woe, whether it is due to crappy weather, marauding critters, ignorance, or just plain dumb-assery (hats off to Potato Stew for teaching me a fine new word). I’ve come to think that “black thumbs” are just people who caught their bad luck early in the learning process and mistook it for no talent. There is no crying in gardening, folks. “Green thumbs” are simply stubborn or lucky.

For example, this morning I was moving trays of cool-season seedlings out to my deck from my greenhouse, because it gets really hot in there during 70 degree weather. These would be the seedlings that I replanted after moving them to the unheated greenhouse just before a night in the teens. (That was dumb-assery.) I was balancing them on one hand while moving something to make a space for them, and whoops, just as if I was making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the tray hit the ground face down. (Yes, I was a waitress, and no, that career didn’t last very long, in case you’re wondering.)

My saving grace was that I had watered them a bit too vigorously with a hose a few days ago and most of the survivors from that mistake were laying on their sides, so only a few were broken. I was amazed at this bit of luck. The fennel and dill went flying and had to be transplanted into the beds right away but the others had developed enough roots to remain in the tray. Fennel and dill seedlings look an awful lot alike, and I hope that I identified them correctly because I don’t want them growing side by side.

I decided that after these incidents Mother Nature wanted me to hand them over, so after work this afternoon I transplanted the seedlings in this tray to the second raised bed out from the deck. That would be, in order, fennel, broccoli “De Cicco” and a broccoli mix, “Oliver” brussels sprouts, red and golden chard, Siberian kale, parsley, and Buttercrunch Bibb lettuce (seeds).

I planted the small bed in front of the greenhouse with alternating colors of chard. It should be delightfully tacky. Maybe I’ll put a garden gnome there.

The dill went into the herb garden in “zone one”; it liked it there last year and I had volunteer plants in late fall/early winter. Since it is a fertile day (gardening by the moon) for planting above-ground annuals, I planted another round of Red Oakleaf and Black-seed Simpson lettuces along the path there.

I planted another round of peas. I picked up the wrong packet of seeds and planted Lincoln peas next to my Sugar Ann sugar snap peas. I think it will be okay but I won’t be able to save the seeds. On one side of the Sugar Anns I dug up all the Lincoln peas I could find and replanted that area with the correct Sugar Ann peas. I’m sure that I missed a lot so I didn’t try to dig up the others. I replanted those seeds next to the other Lincolns and I also planted a new patch of Little Marvels.

Cabbages got a primo sunny spot next to the leeks this year. I felt bad because I planted them in a bad spot last year and they didn’t form heads. I was a cabbage abuser. I only planted five of them though; I didn’t feel that sorry about it.

Believe it or not, there is room for other vegetables. It will still be a challenge because I want to plant a lot of beans later!

A cool drizzly rain is predicted tomorrow, then the next several days is predicted to be in the high 70s.