Time for Gardening!

Last year, I started some seeds in March, and while it was therapeutic to what was really bothering me at the time, it wasn't exactly....successful.   The garden itself ended up being great - as a learning experience, as a good way to be outside, and as a source of fresh clean produce.  But the seeds that I sprouted indoors were never hardy enough to survive outside, despite my best efforts at following all the garden blogs I was reading.

Because we accidentally had wimpy seedlings, we had to buy a lot of starter plants, which was much more expensive than if I had been able to start seeds.  Especially since I had already bought the seeds.

This year, I'm trying a different approach, called winter gardening (although it's supposed to be 78 degrees outside today, so I'm not sure how "wintery" it will really be....but it's March, and that's when it's supposed to be started.

I started reading through different ideas, and found two different sites that recommended this idea of winter gardening (Click here and here if you're interested in checking them out).  

It was really fun to do this project with the kids.  They had all kinds of questions about how the mini-greenhouses worked, and while I felt fairly inadequate as a science teacher, we talked it through, and they seemed satisfied with my answers.  For now...

They helped me choose some of the seeds to start, and thus we ended up with quite an assortment.  We'll probably do more of them today, and keep going until we're done.

I don't know what it is about gardening, exactly,  that I love so much.  Somehow I find it so relaxing, and yet energizing, all at once.  I like feeling like something I'm doing is providing for our family in a tangible way, and I like knowing that the vegetables and herbs grown are fresh and nutritious.

Ok, I guess I do know what I love about gardening.

I'm so excited to see if this style of gardening ends up working for us!