So, two things happened this past weekend.
On a large - nearly nationwide - scale, we sprung our clocks forward and yep lost an hour of sleep, but gained sunlight for an extra hour each evening. I count down the minutes to Daylight Saving like a kid on Christmas except the magic of this transition lasts so much longer than just a morning. I crave the sun and cannot believe what a tremendous difference it makes each year.
And on a much smaller scale, after nearly nine months, my postpartum body has figured itself out and my hormones are back to normal. What a difference that made. I feel like I spent the past few months upside down being violently shaken and now I'm back with my feet on the ground and everything looks a little brighter. There was a lot (a lot) of random stuff that has felt overwhelming recently which is no longer causing me to panic. I am sleeping. I am not crying. I am overall lighter.
Check plus on both accounts. Paul hardly knows what to do with this happy, settled person who appeared out of thin air last weekend.
All of that is the lead in to my 2014 garden post. Because, yep, they are related.
I am so very excited to get back into gardening this spring, summer and fall. You may remember I had a decently thriving container garden in 2012. And then you may remember that I attempted to do the same in 2013. And then, you may remember, but I'm not exactly sure because I haven't mentioned it much, I had a baby in June 2013.
Shortly after, I realized I could only keep two things alive at the same time and picked the baby and myself over the garden (can all choices be so simple?). My tomato plants dried up within a few days.
So my 2013 attempt at "gardening" yielded a few early baby tomatoes and a plethora of dead basil plants. Not ideal.
This year, now that that task of keeping me and the baby alive is no longer quite so intense, I am going all in on the garden. We have a great space on the east side of our house that was covered with rocks (it was officially touted as RV parking when we bought the house). On the recommendation of some friends, we bought three of these planter boxes and they were a CINCH to put together. We kept the rocks as the base (ideally they'll help with drainage) and filled the boxes with dirt (though I think we need a bit more dirt).
Inside the house, I am trying to grow seedlings. This is attempt #2 of the year. In February, I tried the same thing using bio-degradable pods and wound up with a mold city. It was sad. Some Internet searching revealed that that bio-degradable pods retain moisture too well, causing mold to grow. So I tried again with a plastic base and so far, am having great success.
I plan to transplant my seedlings outside in a few weeks and most likely will buy some seedlings as well.
This year we are going to grow: basil, tons of different tomatoes, cucumber, snow peas, romaine lettuce, green onion, garlic and spinach. I'm increasing my range of vegetables by 300% because I have the space this year and am going to make the time.
Gardening, like extra daylight and a healthy body, fills me with joy and has the ability to totally change my life outlook. I look forward to sharing our garden progress often on the blog (and on Instagram with the hashtag #cripegarden). But let's be honest, right now I am pretty much looking forward to everything. Three cheers for the approaching spring.
