So I had planted some tomatillos waaay too early and had to repeatedly make mad dashes to cover them to protect them from freezing temps and freak snow storms. They were blooming in early April. Well, it snowed one night after I had gone to bed and it had gotten cold enough to blast them through the covering.

All the tomatillos except this one died. This lone defiant stem is now sending out new leaves. It is surrounded by radish seedlings. I am going through a radish phase, so I tucked as many radish seeds as I could into every space open.

I will have to give this tomatillo a name. When I thought all of them were toast, I had given up on saving them... so this plant went through several more freezing nights and 3+ inches of snow unprotected... and still lived! A reminder from the Universe that just when you think every chance of survival is gone, as long as you fight, you still have a chance.

Catnip... indestructible and thriving. This is Gypsy's herb patch that started the invasion. It is particularly pungent with HUGE leaves. I took this just a few days ago and it is doubled in size. This is just a small section of it. Her patio patch is about 3 feet long and 1.5 feet wide. The volunteers are everywhere. I hack them back repeatedly and offer big armfuls to friends also supporting felines with an herb habit.

To give you an idea roughly the size of the leaves.. I picked the leaf on the bottom right of the previous picture and put this key and penny on it to show scale. Soon the leaves will get even bigger and like every year it will survive near daily visits from Gypsy. I tear up the leaves into smaller pieces and she throws herself on top and rolls like mad. Then she sometimes chases imaginary things before coming back and eating the leaves. Catnip is good for their digestion. Gypsy's son is one of the funniest cats to watch when he gets some of the fresh nip. After rolling in it he tears through the house, jumping in the air and changes direction... animated to the extreme. He's been known to roll on it so intensely you can see green stains on the white patches of his fur.

Well... back to the garden. I have been unable to do much the last few days because of some crazy intense winds. The neighbors' daughter I think has a new dog.. and it is a bit freaky. I need ear plugs as I can't go into my yard without it barking and growling nonstop. They make no effort to quiet him and leave him outside always. Kinda sucks as the garden is where I like to relax and it is impossible to do that with his sharp intense barking. After 10 minutes it is enough to give you a raging headache.

We have another neighbor 2 doors down that lets their dog run free. Both dogs are not socialized and it worries me. The dog that runs loose has cornered me in my garage as well as kept me stuck in the house for over an hour as every time I opened the front door it would come up and start snarling. I've been attacked by a canine before (it was a hybrid none the less) and although I used to never have any fear previous to that over dogs.. when they snarl like that it does trigger automatically fear. I regain self control quickly.. but the automatic response irritates me. (When I was attacked I literally kicked the hybrid off of me twice and the third time it attacked a stray female dog we found actually came to my rescue. She bit him and he took off after her. The hybrid bit 5 people that day.. the worst was an 8 yr old girl as her bites were deep in her forearm. I ended up with both arms needing stitches- including some on the inside of my right hand.)

I don't mind dogs running loose if they are friendly. Buddy the yellow lab escapes regularly to make his social rounds before heading home, often with a small toy or ball one of the kids left out. I don't mind timid dogs... there was one that would escape and it took me hours to get her to come to me to be petted so I could look at her tags. She decided she loved me after that and she's the only dog I have ever had issues with trying to keep her out of my fenced yard. She'd break out of her yard to go break into mine. She'd play with my dog and I would bring her back when her humans got home from work. Every time I sat down on the ground she took it as an invite. She was one big lap dog.

Speaking of weeding.. back to work I go.