One of the things I am most excited to be able to do now that we have a bigger yard is garden.  Previously, living in a town home, I would say I dabbled in gardening. I’ve read dozens of articles on container gardening and truly believe it’s possible to have quite a fruitful output with window boxes and pots or whatever you can construct out of a pallet, but that never happened for me.  The plants would grow, mostly tomatoes and lettuce and a few peppers, but after picking a few fruits or veggies that was pretty much the end of my harvest. Squirrels and bunnies seemed to have a hay day with my efforts and those were the only creatures who benefited.

So now, I’m hoping to make a much more valiant effort and see a slightly more gratifying result.  For the past few weeks I saved seeds from some of the typical veggies we love to eat: red and orange bell peppers, jalapenos, and butternut squash. I let the seeds dry on a plate for about a week and then I filled two egg cartons with dirt from the garden and dropped a couple seeds into each egg holder spot (probably not the correct term).  If I recall correctly from when I bought seeds at Home Depot or Lowes, something would start to sprout within 2-3 weeks. I’m hopeful at least a few of them will grow but in case that doesn’t happen, I wanted to start early so I could try again (and again, and again).

<insert pic that I never took, just imagine a grayish colored egg carton with dirt>

For me, that’s a huge part of the beauty of this place.  It’s “wide open spaces, room to make the big mistakes” as the oh-so-wise Dixie Chicks once said (and yes, I’ve referenced them twice back to back).  While I do not consider attempting to start some veggie plants from seeds and failing a big mistake, it feels so freeing to even have the option now.  If this doesn’t work out, I’m sure there are approximately 147,000 blog posts on how to grow plants from seeds that I could read and learn from, like this on The Spruce.  But naively, I wanted to just attempt it from the simplest most basic logic that came to my mind:  

1. “This piece of [cucumber] I’m eating has seeds.  
2. Seeds are what you plant to grow the [cucumber].  
3. I wonder what would happen if I just toss some of these seeds in a little bit of earth?”

I’m not convinced that I have to buy some kit that costs $59.99 to start seeds.  That just sounds like crazy talk. Full disclaimer: a few years back I asked Cactus Man (aka my husband) to buy me one of those fish tanks that grows herbs on top and he did.  Guess how many herbs I successfully grew? Pick a number between 0 and 0 and you’ll be correct.

And of course if the seed thing doesn’t work out this season, I can always buy some starter plants from a local nursery.  Not gonna be a purist who insists on growing everything from scratch. Plus, I foresee there being lots of other points along the way where I can very realistically mess this up.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not predicting failure before I even start. I’m just recognizing that I could very well get the starter plants off the ground indoors and then plant them outdoors only to have 27 other curve balls come at me, like weather, and animals, and the soil’s composition, that I wasn’t prepared for.  

But in the meantime, I’m really eager to think about the bounty that we could have all summer long right from our own backyard.  Here’s what I think I want to start with this first year:

• Lettuce – red leaf and romaine
• Kale
• Tomatoes – heirloom and cherry and whatever is good for canning
• Spicy peppers – jalapeno, habanero
• Bell peppers
• Butternut squash
• Strawberries
• Blueberries

Biting off more than I can chew?  (couldn’t resist!) Maybe, but I’ve heard all of these are pretty standard/hearty plants for beginners.  So I’ll keep you posted.