Our garden beds are mostly planted. I have a few beds I am leaving empty to plant the herbs I bring home from my herbal class. My herbal collection now includes lemon balm, day lily, feverfew, monarda, greek mullein, boneset, calendula, and yerba mansa. I’m cold stratifying some more herbal seeds to plant in the garden in a few weeks.

I can’t quite describe how proud, excited, and joyful I felt when I saw our first sprouts break through the soil. Last year I felt intimidated to even plant the seeds in our two garden beds, so Stephen did it. This year I just bit the bullet and planted the seeds hoping I got the spacing right.

Our radishes were the first to come up. We’ve also planted sunflowers, cucumbers, carrots, swiss chard, kale, zucchini, yellow squash, lettuce, strawberries, zinnias, and we bought a cherry tomato starter plant from our local co-op. Everything has sprouted except the strawberries and lettuce.

So far this gardening experiment seems to be on track–our seeds have sprouted and are growing!

May the bird call be my voice
the wind be my breath
        the rivers be my blood
        the soil be my skin
        the rocks be my bones
        the grasses be my hair
        the branches be my fingers
May the earth spinning be my dance
Let no part of me ever be separate again
Let no part of you be unknown to me
         Earth of my body
         Body of the earth
—Karen Zeider