It snowed on my garden. I misjudged. I planted too early. We covered everything in sheets of plastic but not everything survived. I can’t beat myself up enough for jumping the gun. Everyone told me it was a false spring. It was so warm. Who knew? I wanted them in! I felt industrious after a long winter. I just had to get out and get ‘er done! Such is my life. Even when I know better, I sometimes jump the gun. Most times, I learn from my mistakes and I move on. It is the same in life and writing. I look at is as an exercise in layers:

LAYERS

THE GARDEN:  The first layer is creating a bed. I have a raised bed that we built for all of the herbs, lettuce and carrots. I also dug out the grass in two other areas which I surrounded with the 4,000 large rocks that were left stacked up against my fence by the last owner of the house. I learned that in Colorado there is this horrible yellow cake clay that the builder plopped around the yard after digging the basement out. This is underneath the bare layer of topsoil in which they laid the soil. Once I realized that this clay was what was underneath the grass that I dug out, I promptly dug it out as well. Next, I emptied many, many bags of topsoil and Supersoil that I bought from Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and King Soopers in order to make a fertile bed. I then prepared the beds one layer at a time, blending and mixing, combining each subsequent layer until I got it just right. The soil does get better over the years after many amendments to the layers. A month before, I had started the plants from tiny seeds inside the house. I put them under grow lights and plastic and nurtured them. I planted the seedlings outside and watered them thoroughly. It’s up to them to grow. I made sure that I protected the newly planted garden with a fence that I built around the garden. Otherwise, the bunnies eat everything down to the nub – nice for them but not for my family.

Over the years I’ve continued to try many methods to get plants to grow out here. I’ve tried all kinds of species of plants to try and get them to grow. I learned about growing zones and that Home Depot doesn’t always sell you plants for the right zone so they die. I take them back, get reimbursed, and try another plant. I will continue to change the gardens and, hopefully, the weather will cooperate. But when it doesn’t, I’ll replant. When life gives you snow, you learn to deal with the death of a plant and move on.