Garden Beginnings

Like the door in Narnia, our garden entryway looks a bit out of place standing alone and leading nowhere in the bleak grey landscape of not-quite-spring.

Ginny is hosting a link up of garden journal posts to visually chronicle the progression of the growing season. She's already inspired me to plant some garlic and put the beds to use over next winter. At present, the vegetable garden is empty and nothing remains but the dregs of last year's vines.

And this tangled mess is a view of the herb garden. You can see that I am one to skip what is commonly called 'fall cleanup', preferring to leave the dying vegetation of the previous season in place as a sort of natural mulch and to provide cover for foraging wildlife. I also just like the wild natural look.

 If you look closely there is life to be seen,

 (lemon balm)

and it's those bits of very much alive greenery that bring hope and joy to the gardener's soul.

(parsley)

But most of the action is going on here inside the house.

 For several weeks now this has been an almost daily sight-

as my little garden helpers assists with the sowing

carefully planting the tiny brown packages of new life.

My vegetable seeds this year are from St. Clare Heirloom Seeds, a family owned company that specializes in non-hybrid, non-GMO, open pollinated seeds. I have been very pleased with the seeds, and they are packaged in handy little bags inside the paper envelopes for safe storing of the seeds (no more accidentally dumping the entire envelope of seeds out all over the ground because you dropped the packet out of your garden basket, if you know what I mean). Using open pollinated seeds also means you can save seeds at the end of the growing season for use next year, as well as letting plants reseed themselves in the garden, knowing that the new plants will be true to type (unlike hybrids).

Kateri is writing down everything she plants in Alice's sweet little Garden Notes book while I keep a more detailed list in my now fifteen year old garden notebook. In February we started peppers, tomatoes, rhubarb, spinach, kale, leeks, and several annual herbs. We also have a couple dozen types of flowers we've planted as well.

 Kateri is so excited to check and see what's 'up' every morning. Mother, we have tomatoes now!

For me, the joy never of having new plants sprouting never gets old. I love to watch things grow, little by little, day by day, greener and greener. It's always amazing to think of the big plants and so much food that will delight and nourish us, all coming from those tiny brown seeds.

 

(sweet peppers - California Wonder and Hungarian  bananas)

So this is what my 'garden' looks like for now as we plant and tend and wait for spring.

Edited to add: A commenter asked if it's too late to start seeds. It's still early in the season (at least where I live) and a couple of weeks delay isn't a problem - your harvests will just be a little later. You can go to the almanac site, type in your zip code, and it will give you the best planting dates for various seeds based on your location. Alternatively, this site has a planting guide worksheet that you can print out. I have another post on starting seeds here. The book I use for reference on vegetable gardening is The Vegetable Gardener's Bible.

Comments

[KackyK]

Love your pictures. I have never gardened by starting my own seeds...I'm such a newbie. Is it too late to start you think or could I start some seeds this week or next?

[Nadja]

Believe it or not, I haven't started a thing yet, not that I do more than tomatoes and my herbs here on this patch o' dirt (rocks and clay, really). Lettuces would be a good greenhouse winter crop here, as they bolt almost immediately.

Thank you for the link to St. Clare's Seeds--I love to support Catholic, family-owned companies whenever I can!

[Theresa in Alberta]

looking at the plants peeking thru the dead brown leaves of last years growth is just what I needed to see this snowy cold morning in northern alberta. le sighhhhhhh

[Kelly B.]

I'm just longing to do this! But...alas...we're moving out of state in late May. Hopefully we can do a little gardening this coming summer when we settle into our new home. Thank you for all your gardening/seed-starting posts. We've learned so much from you! God Bless, Kelly B.

[Rosina {Rosy ~ Posy}]

I just love how excited kids get when it's time to start planting :) Looks like you have a great start on your seedlings to! I'm hopping over from ginnys. I'm participating in her garden journal updates to and I look forward to seeing your garden grow :)

[Elisa]

Oh, how beautiful! We are running late I think. We are just now starting a few seeds. Better late than never. =)

[Cheryl M]

Kimberlee, you have such precious garden helpers! Thanks for the St. Clare link...gonna check them out. :)

[Dessi]

Looks like a magical beginnings!! I have a question, do you do Easter baskets? I grew up Orthodox and we never did that, but here everybody does it( in America). I have 6 kids and seems costly. If you do do you have any ideas how to do that in large family without making your husband loose his mind:0

[Jennifer G. Miller]

So lovely, Kimberlee! I have to thank you so much for the images of egg cartons to start your seeds. I'm a bit behind on seed starting, and was regretting not getting the newspaper pot maker, but the idea for egg cartons -- brilliant and perfect! I have about 25 cartons I already have!

And the Garden Notes -- I missed that post originally, so I love the visual and will be doing that with my boys!

[Kimberlee]

Thank you for all the kind comments!
Dessi, we don't really do 'baskets' any more at Easter. After the long Lenten fast from goodies we make lots of special treats and baked goods for Easter, so it doesn't seem necessary to buy things just to put in baskets.
Jennifer, the cardboard egg cartons are great because you can just break them apart and bury the whole thing at planting out time. We also used some TP tubes for planting cups: cut a tube in half, then make four cuts in one end of it. Fold in these flaps in an overlapping fashion, and you have a seed starting cup! You can see them in the picture of Kateri holding a plastic tub. (I do move just my tomatoes and peppers up to larger paper cups when they outgrow the egg carton cells. I'm a little obsessive about them, lol.)

[Jennifer G. Miller]

As I was searching for egg carton seed starting, I came across the directions for TP rolls...so I'll be saving those now, too! My neighbor plants his tomato seeds in the larger red Chinet plastic cups from Costco, with holes on the bottom...to give them lots of room to grow. I did that last year and the soil broke up too much planting, disturbing the roots a bit. I think your approach to put the egg carton into the cup as it grows more is a "safer" approach in the replanting process.

It's so rejuvenating to garden. After spending a few days in the soil, I feel so refreshed. New life!!!