Starting our seeds

Perhaps the cold weather is starting to wear us out a little bit or maybe it's that we've had enough false hope instilled in us with a few freaky warm days, but I got a sudden urge to start planting our garden last week.

We didn't start seeds until much later last year, but I'm kicking it up a notch this time. Three season planting. Yeah, as in spring, summer and fall crops. Plus, I've picked up an awesome book called Square Foot Gardening that promises to transform my garden's yield. Transform.



I enlisted my trusty garden assisted again this year and she was all too happy to help. Sidenote: it's fun to see how her coordination has improved in a year's time. Anna was able to fill the peat boxes herself with hardly any spilling and pick up just the right number of extremely small seeds per cup and plant them. Not too shabby.

Our spring crop, which will actually be transplanted in late March, will be filled with lettuce, spinach, and carrots (24 of them this year). Plus, I let Anna choose some flowers to plant so we've got a tray of zinnias to put in planters later this spring. Basil and chives and tomatoes also will make their debut, but I've gotta keep those inside for a looong time. My indoor basil track record isn't too fabulous so we'll see how it goes.



Abe is already eager to help with the watering. Today he tried to follow me outside in his socks so he could have his turn holding the watering can. Turning back to see him march out the door into the snow without shoes brought a smile to my face, though marching him right back in against his will was not as happy.

For fun I let him fill up the watering can and dump it out into the sink a few times. Then Anna had to do it also. Then Abe wanted to do it again and, well, I sense a pattern developing. And I sense I will have a very wet messy kitchen during the next few weeks.