summer officially begins today yet i haven't plant a single thing. normally i'd have my seedlings transplanted by mid-to-late may. unfortunately the seeds i planted before i left for china produced stunted seedlings. this season i have no choice but to buy my plants. i biked down to pemberton farms around noontime. the weather was hot - in the mid 80's - but dry so it wasn't too bad. this late in the season, they only had a few vegetable plants left, and what they had many had twisted stems from neglect. nothing looked good but i didn't want to leave empty-handed so i picked up a half dozen eggplant seedlings for $3.49 (unknown variety, just said "eggplant"). i had an empty box strapped to the back of my bike to transport the seedlings home.

i went to visit the community garden first to plant the eggplants. i think my plot has the biggest color display with a field of larkspur in various shades of purple and pink. my maroon hollyhock has also bloomed. i don't see any other gardeners with either larkspurs/delphiniums or hollyhocks. probably the reason why nobody from the garden committee has hassled me for neglecting my plot is simply because it looks like i've put in a lot of work, even though everything that's currently growing were all self-sown. the mulberries have also started falling, but it's still early so i don't have a mulberry carpet yet.

i planted the eggplants which was an ordeal in the hot weather. by the time i was done, my face was covered in sweat, streaking all over my glasses. there's probably a good reason why nobody visits the garden in the middle of the day. i got the hose and watered the garden. i also did a bit of weeding (pulling out some crabgrass and wild morning glory seedlings) and set up some tomato cages to prevent some of the taller larkspurs from toppling over. i also caged a single wild tomato, maybe that's my only tomato of the season.

before i left, i brought in all the empty garden refuse containers. after returning home and taking a shower, i went out again briefly to star market to get some more cherries and some snacks (potato chips, brownie mix).

my mother called while i was in the garden, a friend of my father's was in town and invited them out to dinner tonight. i wasn't included, but i was more than happy to stay home and cook for myself. i watched believeland on streaming ESPN then fell asleep on the couch around 4pm, waking up sometime after 7pm.

i didn't have dinner until after 9pm, some simple cheese tortellini with pasta sauce.