As an old dog, I try to learn new tricks. I saw this video of a guy in a greenhouse planting tomatoes. He had something that looked like a bazooka and he was sticking it in the ground with one hand, and then taking a young tomato plant from a tray of tomatoes he held in his other hand, like a butler, and dropped the plant down the shaft of the bazooka thing, and then he pressed a handle and lifted the tube-like bazooka straight up vertically, and presto the tomato was left behind, planted expertly in the soil. He took a step and jammed the tube into the ground again and planted another one, right on down the row. “Man, what is that thing?” I thought.

A little on-line research and I discovered it’s called a “Stand N’ Plant” and that’s what you do with it -- stand and plant. What a back saver for the little guy who doesn’t have a stash of tractors and planting wagons and the field paraphernalia of the big dirt farmers. There were a few different styles. But I settled on a sturdy model from a guy in Pennsylvania who makes them himself and ships worldwide. I got the red metal bazooka sized one, and a smaller one made out of plastic pipe. The thing is, the handle opens the bottom mouth of the tube and allows the plant, or seeds, to fall through into the hole the point of the closed pipe made in the fluffy soil. Jam, drop plant, squeeze handle opening the bottom of the tube, lift straight up, release handle allowing a spring to snap the pointed end of the tube back closed. Great invention!

I can’t just walk out and start planting. First I build the soil. Then, I build the fence. In between, I order the seeds and get those with a long growing to maturity date, like peppers and onions, over to the green house for germination.

For the soil, I have been adding chopped leaves and composted woodchips and some left over sand from my mason days. All tilled in, the soil is looking good. The fence has been a year-long project and, while closed in, is far from done. Our white tailed-deer, pretty to look at -- especially the fawns, tottering around now on their new found rodent legs -- are a menace to farmer and roadster. Without a fence, I would have nothing. It’s a good feeling when a field is closed in. Now, to add some low chicken wire to the fence for the muskrats which developed a taste for my wonderful upland onions last summer and took out half the crop. Get rid of one pest problem, discover another.

Planting is fun and this morning, before the rain, I put in four rows of green beans, which I love, and the fun of watching them come up is as thrilling as anything in the garden. Beans need warm ground to sprout effectively and we are just on the borderline of warmth. Farming is also a lot of hope: hoping you got it right, that the seeds are not too deep, that it will rain, that it will stop raining! LOL. I’m leaning heavy on the tomatoes this year, and have seven types of peppers in, and some potatoes are up…but that field is not fenced and the tops have been nibbled and, man, just can’t keep up. But that’s Ok. I’m learnin’; we’re learnin’. Get out in the field. The sun is here, the sun is done. And then the bees…time to make the queens. Good thing I got my one round of golf in early this year.