My general sense is that backyard gardening is an endless series of repetitive tasks; planting, weeding, bending over, weeding, watering, careful observation, more weeding and trying not to break things in the hopes of getting something to eat for free assuming you don't factor in the astronomical costs of time, equipment, water and planting supplies.

It's not all bad; the truth is, there aren't a lot of other ways to get the chance to see things come to life from from virtually nothing; to see them emerge as colorful green stems from the dirt, to develop arms and branches and literally double in size every day or two for weeks and months.  If you have a kid, you will have the same discoveries and astounding developments but it's over the course of years and decades, not what seems like minutes.  And, when the growing stage is winding down, the death spiral is beginning and that's when, in their desperation, the plants start promiscuously producing children - tomatos, cucumbers, peppers, everything. And they too start out as small flowers, and, almost before your eyes, they turn into shapely, colorful little fruits and vegetables, and then ... they are big enough to eat.  And if you grow them right, you almost don't have to wash them before you eat them, but you still do!

If you are reading this and you are not me, you are one of a small, select group of masochists that I allowed to have access to these personal journey "live experience" scribblings that I call a journal. I wanted a place where I could record data regarding the plantings, cultivations, whatever of this relentless chore. It also needed to be a clickable source of a growing number of growing tips stolen from everywhere, photos of seed packets, interminable yard snapshots and whatever else could be crammed into an unlimited journalverse of 0's and 1's.

Hopefully my fondness for prolixity won't bore you. It has found fertile ground in the fun I find documenting the same lettuce beds, for example, on a near-daily basis.  You will see that as they grow bigger and closer together, they are also diminishing in numbers as I gladly eat them.

If you're not already gardening, it will undoubtedly inspire you to get filthy in the dirt. That would be great for you and I'm sure the gardening supplyhouses will appreciate it very much as well. Tell them I sent you.