Lunchtime Gardening

Because I work at home, I have the luxury of . . . rarely taking a real lunch hour. Usually I’m up at my desk with a bowl of salad, or at the dining room table with a sandwich and a manuscript to edit, or a must-read publication to peruse. I do stroll down the street with Nala, the dog, so she can have her daily romp with her dog-buddy, Jack, in his yard, but I generally leave her there so I can return home for more work.

Today I mixed it up a bit (feeling guilty that Nala is always the guest, rarely the host) and had Jack come to our yard. I brought my lunch outdoors, into the gloriously cool but still sunny summer day. I ate my salad (a satisfying bowl of lightly dressed lettuce and lots of sinkers, including earthy carrots I dug up yesterday) and watched the dogs romp. Then, while they lolled about in the shade, alternately biting one another’s ears and rolling in the grass, I weeded out the patch of garden where the parsley is pretty much spent.

The result: two little rows ready for planting lettuce and spinach. The seeds went in just as Jack was looking out the gate, wondering when his owner might pick him up. I sprinkled the seeds with water, walked Jack home, and now I’m back at work.

I still feel as though I have three weeks’ worth of weeding and digging and planting and reorganizing to do – but now I understand better that I can do it one lunch hour patch at a time.

A most satisfying lunch.