It’s a new month, and, even better, it’s one of my favorite months of the gardening season! In May, the tomatoes get moved out from under the basement lights and out into the garden. I’ll plant the cucumbers, zucchini, and beans that we’ll be eating for most of the summer. May is a good month.

Aside from garden goodness, I am looking forward (OK, I’m practically jumping up and down like a preschooler) to seeing “The Avengers” on Friday. (Anyone else dying to see it?)

And, on Saturday, my baby girl turns four. Four! Right before she was born, I had just finished up the long, terrifying (for me) process of trying to win my job at About.com. I got the job, had a baby, and came right home, writing as much as I could to get my new site off the ground. I don’t remember most of that period of time, to be honest with you. (Also, having a baby on Cinco de Mayo brought more than its fair share of “I bet you want a margarita right now!” jokes from hospital staff.)

The lemon balm and oregano are already starting to reach monstrous sizes.

So, yeah, this is going to be a good month. I haven’t been here writing a lot, but I’ve been busy. In addition to my work over at About.com, I’ve been working on a couple of my other blogs (Gardening in the Mitten, my Michigan gardening blog, is one that I’m determined to put more regular work into) and still plugging away at the novel I’m writing.

Here’s a hodge-podge garden update. Now that we’ve reached the glorious month of May, I’ll try to write here more often. In no particular order, here are a few things that happened this month in the garden:

1. We bought and planted an ‘October Glory’ maple tree near the kids’ swing set in the back yard.
2. We’ve been eating spinach, leeks, mesclun, and scallions from the garden since the beginning of the month.
3. We have currants growing on the clearance currant we bought last fall, tons of strawberry blossoms, and plenty of good growth on the raspberries and blackberries. It’s going to be a good fruit year, especially if we manage to protect some of our apples from the apple maggots this summer.
5. The dandelions….they are out of control this year. Holy cow.
6. The tulips bloomed, to reveal that most of what I planted last fall had been dug up by squirrels.
7. The common lilac is nearly done blooming, but the dwarf Korean lilac is just starting. I am really happy we planted both — lilac season just isn’t long enough.
8. There’s a vendor who sells lovely little herb plants at Eastern Market. Thanks to him, the herb garden is going to be awesome this year. I had my eye on a few more things I want to pick up next time we go.

That just about does it. I’m looking forward to a good gardening year!