Gardening

Not much to look at yet, but it's encouraging. Five or six weeks to the first flowers. Weeks of flowers. Bright red and white. Living color on the windowsill of the window that looks out on three months of dormant black & white sensory deprivation.

If you have space, make time. To buy and plant some bulbs during the next few weeks. It's now ... or a year from now. Tulips, irises, lilies, daffodils, hyacinths, crocuses. All those things that just pop up right on time every year to let you know the natural world still works.

A salsa garden is amazingly space efficient. You can grow tomatoes, peppers, cilantro and parsley in a single pot. Sure, it's a little crowded - but the stuff actually grows well with six to eight hours a day of summer sun.

It may be too hot for humans this summer, but it's been great for tomatoes. Today's Garden Watch starts and ends in the kitchen. The first day of Spring, March 20, I put some seeds in a little starter kit. Last night, I sliced some of the tomatoes they grew into and made a luscious basil pesto-tomato pizza.

OK, it's not better than sex. But it's great for corn. If you missed the prequel, Corn Sex In The City, I have to tell you that I never really thought I could grow corn in a container. So picking my first ear of home-grown was a pretty exciting moment.