I always get the urge to start seeds for the garden WAY to early. I’ve been good and held off until March this year but yesterday, we finally put some seeds in. It’s my cabin fever release. My kids help me plant and we’re not exactly good at it. (It’s chaos- imagine a three year old pulling seed markers out of the plants faster than I can accurately put them back in and me placing more emphasis on practicing fine motor skills that making sure the correct number of seeds make it into the starter pod… it’s kind a mess!)

By the time the plants start coming up I honestly have no idea what is what and how many baby plants (which my kids call “baby planties”) will actually be in each seed pod. Inevitably some seeds will fall and land on the table or between the pods and we will have no idea which seed it is. So we keep a bag of “lonely seeds,” and we end up throwing those all in a pot or two and just seeing what happens. Last year our lonely seed pots had everything from lavender to corn! It doesn’t get very big but I hope I always remember my youngest’s tiny voice saying “look at the baby co-wn, it’s so cuuuuuuuute!”

I think starting seeds starts getting me (and hopefully the kids) excited about the garden. I genuinely enjoy taking care of things, and a garden brings me so much joy! All those baby planties to take care of! We have a small garden at my house and we plant most of our starters (and starters purchased from the local nursery) in my dad’s larger garden. His garden is around an acre and he lives about 10 minutes away. We help plant, he does the watering and adds nutrition, and we head over once a week or so to help take care of weeding and eventually harvesting. (Or to just admire the garden). Dad plows, we hand weed around the plants. Dad works on the gross motor, and we work on the fine motor. For me sometimes it’s nice to just drop my kids off inside with my mom and dad, and go spend a few minutes taking care of the plants. No diapers, no one asking me for screen time or snacks, just picking weeds and listening to the birds in the sunshine. It’s a nice alternative.

Wish me luck with our starters! I’ve got a few surprises going in to the garden this year! Hoping to show you a pretty unique harvest in a few months!