Gardening

I have been starting seeds for my vegetable garden. This is only my second year to have a garden so I’m still in the learning stages. Last year we started plants from seed too, but we just started everything at the same time and planted it all in the garden at the same time. Learned a few things from that!! So this year I have been visiting websites, using catalogs from local seed companies, and reading books and pamphlets on gardening. A lot of it just confuses me but I did find this awesome planting chart that tells you how far apart to plants things, what seeds to start inside, and which to plant directly into the garden. It also tells you when to plant, how log before you can start to harvest, and tons of other info that I don’t really know how I’ll use just yet.

So, for the last two evening, as I watch TV, I’ve been starting seeds in trays. This is the time to start eggplant, peppers and tomatoes. I have everything set up on the coffee table, I have 7 trays with 72 starter pellets in each, a knife to open the seed packets, and a pair of tweezers for placing exactly 2 seeds into each little starter glob of dirt. Oh yeah, I also have a table lamp set up because I need more light to see what the hell I’m doing. Those seeds are wicked small. All those years of playing Operation as a child have finally paid off!

What I realized is that even though it seems like they don’t put very many seeds in a packet, they really do. On average I’ve started about 36 of each and that is using only about half of the seeds in a packet. So, I’m going to have more plants than I will have room in my garden for, and I still have all these seeds left over with not dirt for them. Nature is pretty incredible when you think about how many seeds a single plant can produce, it’s a wonder we aren’t overtaken by plants every day. I still hate to waste the seeds I didn’t use, so I’m saving them and keeping them with their envelopes and I will pass them on to the neighborhood school which has a garden where the kids learn to become gardeners. As for the extra plants I grow, I will share them with my neighbors, or maybe I’ll get a booth at the local farmers market and sell them. I would be like a real farmer! LOL

Some of the things I really like about gardening are:
-- I like getting out and moving around, which I really need to do that
-- I get a kick out of watching the plants grows
-- I feel completely accomplished when I pick and use what I’ve grown
-- I love sharing the harvest with my family, friends and neighbors
-- I feel a sense of connection with my ancestors who were farmers
-- I like that I know exactly how and where my food was grown
-- I enjoy when the kids come by and they get to pick something, they get so excited
-- I like watching my cat pretend to be a jungle cat as she slinks through the plants
-- I enjoy sitting on the patio and listening to the wind rustle the corn as the sun sets