“I only have two speeds,” my sister told me this past weekend. “Hell-bent and catatonic.”
As the former indicates her pace for medical school duties, well then, I’ll take catatonic, please, and a Cleveland weekend full of container planting and calm hours. I had the luck to visit my sister Anne during one of the few pauses students take. Finished with her boards and about to head into neurosurgery rotations the day after I left, my moments with her were indeed the eye of the storm . . . 
or chard, as it were.
Cleveland Heights is home to many a stately landscape; however, Anne does not hold title to her residence, and furthermore, does not have the time to brush up on horticulture after cramming her head with minute detail on the human body. But she still loves good food and thus a plan was sprouted for outfitting her deck with a couple flavorful items. Bird feeder filled and post vaseline-d (for squirrel deterance), we headed to the Saturday morning farmers market in Shaker Square.
After a once-through, we settled on a vendor whose prices were right; into our arms plopped several chard starts, a rosemary, couple basil plants and a thyme. We also picked up some cilantro-lime freshly made pasta (for carbo-loading before the 
Cleveland Half-Marathon) and rhubarb – tis the season for this striking veggie. One vendor even had potatoes they’d kept through the winter. Cheers for those who think ahead.
Bag-o-soil was to be had at a nursery along the way home, and pots made available by the timely passing of houseplants sat waiting in their pleasant orange terracotta glow upon our return. Up went my sleeves, and out came the, uh, skeletons of plants past. Anne produced a large plastic fork for me to root around the elderly soil, and then we mixed in the new. She’ll ‘feed’ her plants throughout the 
summer with a light top layering of compost made from her kitchen scraps (a process she claims is sped up with the use of Bokashi).
With minimal memory space required, she’ll remember to water her herbs and greens. Hopefully snip off some leaves for seasoning and greens cooking . . . just right for the city dwelling med student.
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Your visit was the highlight of my spring and I have not eaten half so well since you left. Please come back soon and cook for me some more! I promise not to put you through any more forced planting labor, since the herb plantings are doing really well under my normally black thumb.