Jumping the Gun
Every year I swear I will wait until at least the last week of March before I start tender seedlings to transplant outdoors by mid-late-May in this high desert climate, but come those warm pre-spring days and I’m nearly always fooled into jumping the gun.
This year I nursed my tired-of-winter-out-of-season garden desires by planting a single flat with herbs, plants that I’ll likely keep in pots rather than set out in the garden proper.
What appeared to be a modest planting has, of course, become enough seedlings to supply most of the west side of Pocatello. Thyme, basil, Italian parsley, curly parsley, marjoram, lovage and sorrel have already overgrown the flat and are being gradually transplanted into pots.
My cup overflows.
“Abundance” is a word connected with joy meaning one’s life overflows with good things — trees that bear more fruit than one can eat or preserve in a season, more carrots than all the grandsons can pull and eat, red lettuce for a thousand salads, flowers for the every day table and more to give away, friends and family to hug and share in the abundance.
In anticipation, I leisurely and gleefully pored over seed catalogs in December and January, drew myriad garden plans, and in February, ordered seeds from environmentally responsible companies (Seed Savers Exchange, Nichols Garden Nursery, Johnny’s).
The task now is to decide how many tomato plants of each variety I can fit into my tiny garden plot: Green Zebra, Marzano, Yellow Pear, Brandywine, Enchanted and a “black” variety that friends say looks terrible but tastes wonderful.
Will eggplants make it to maturity this year so I can assemble platters of Greek moussaka and Italian caponata?
Will tiny Pocatello slugs devour my peas as fast as they germinate?
These are all questions the garden will answer in its own time.
Right now, I am playing in the dirt indoors transplanting herb seedlings into windowbox-style planters. I’ll set them on removable shelves I’ve constructed in the sunny south-facing window next to my loom. It won’t be long before I can snip extra foliage to toss into a salad, soup or sauce adding flavor, fragrance and a few fresh green vitamins to a meal.