You may be thinking about planting a garden for the first time. Or you might be thinking of expanding your garden space in response to the rise in food prices – enough to “put up” your own vegetables and fruit for the winter.

Now is about the time we should be thinking about seed starting, if you plan to do that. I set up my small greenhouse in my living room yesterday. I will use it for seed starting. It’s mostly to control light and humidity, but also to keep the cat out of the plants! I’m also going to root some herb plant cuttings in there (basil, thyme and rosemary).

Whatever way that you garden, even if it is just flowers in a basket on your front porch or patio, it seems there is an inborn need to see things growing. I will grow herbs, and probably tomatoes and peppers. Maybe I will start some lettuce and spring onion plants to put outside at the end of next month or so.

I posted this video about three years ago. I love this woman. I think it is because she reminds me of my mother. I know that sounds funny, but she thinks a lot the same way my mom did. There is a wonder of nature in her heart, and she is creative – a writer, a musician, a gardener. AND her name is Jessica. My mom’s name was Jessie.

As my daughter once wrote about her grandmother, my mom:

Grandma used to cut fruit apart to show me the beautiful patterns inside. She watered the plants and told me to listen to them drink. She brushed the dirt off the vegetables in the garden and bit into them, telling me to taste their goodness. She sees beauty and magic everywhere. I believe she sees God all the time, in all the good and lovely things of the earth.

When my daughter and her cousin were little (5 or 6?) my mom had them plant little pine trees. That was in the early 1970’s. A few years ago we all visited the farm (which is now owned by a friend), and the ‘kids’ got to see their huge, beautiful, trees!

Gardening with your children and grandchildren is a great thing to do. These days, my daughter and her husband have as large a garden as they can on their small city lot. They grow tomatoes, peppers, broccoli and whatever takes their fancy that year, as well as a variety of herbs. Their two boys have helped them garden since they were little, and so it continues …

My daughter was on the board of their town’s farmer’s market, and still participates there every Saturday during the summer. Her younger son helps out sometimes too.

If you think you are too old to garden, I’ll just say that my mom was putting in a big garden into her eighties. I remember well when she (age 70) and my aunt Anna (age 81) were putting up quarts and quarts of tomatoes and peaches and pickles! My mom always grew beets and made pickles from them just for me.

The first time I posted this video, I got so many great comments, and I reread them today. Czar left some, and it was so nice to ‘hear’ from him again! If you want to read them yourself, I posted it on March 13, 2019.