[caption id="attachment_1040" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The first tomato plant of 2011"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110418_22.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1040" title="20110418_22" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110418_22-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

About 10 years ago, I decided to have a garden. I cleared out a fairly large space in our backyard in La Canada and planted everything from tomatoes to strawberries.

Some of the plants did well, others didn't. I worked pretty hard at it, and that summer I grew 240 tomatoes on my six tomato plants. The next year my work schedule changed and I didn't have the time to spend gardening. I never got around to it again for as long as we lived in California.

One of the things that excited me about moving to Georgia was the thought of planting a garden and really working it. We don't have the biggest backyard, but I was thinking of devoting at least a third of it to plants and fruit trees.

It turned out I couldn't, though. We live under some fairly restrictive rules as to what we're allowed to do with landscaping, and it  turns out the only planting I can do is right around the patio. So I went to Home Depot today and bought a hose, a shovel, some dirt, some fertilizer and a few tomato plants.

I dug a hole and planted my first tomato plant of 2011.

This could possibly be a big mistake. The plant takes about 73 days to mature, which would make it mature at about June 30 or July 1. The problem is that's just about the time we'll be getting back from three weeks in Europe, so I'm going to miss taking care of the plant for the last three weeks before it matures.

That's all right, though. What's important about this is establishing good habits, getting into the habit of having a garden again. So tomorrow I'll dig another hole for another tomato plant, and the day after that I'll dig another one. I haven't decided about Thursday yet; I need to figure whether there's space for three plants or four. I'm also thinking of buying a couple of pots in which I can grow some spices or herbs. I want to do as much as I can with the small amount of space I'm going to have.

Whatever I do or don't grow, I want to get out there and get my hands dirty every day. It has taken me far too long to get into a good routine here in Georgia, and I really don't want to waste any more time.