Do you know where your food comes from?

With planting season and Earth day fast approaching, I thought I'd share our seed starting adventures this year. We've had a garden for as long as I can remember, back when I was a young girl holding tomatoes the size of my head (much like Sweetpea did last year!) and vying with my brother to be "not it" to pick beans on any given day. I was especially excited to pass along the tradition of starting seeds to Sweetpea, and to my delight she was just as enthusiastic. As expected, the hardest part was managing that enthusiasm to ensure the seeds made it safely into the dirt! We figured out a good method by about half way through, and every one of our pots germinated!


This year we planted tomato and pepper seeds in February. We will be planting beans, cucumbers, peas, lettuce, carrots and squash directly outside in the next few days. I've never tried carrots before, but the ones we have claim to be easy to grow, and I'm hoping they are fun. In addition to the general satisfaction of growing much of our own food throughout the summer, a garden can be an ongoing science and problem solving lesson. It is an opportunity for me to demonstrate how important it is for us to take care of the environment, without the lectures. I can't wait to get in there and get our hands dirty!

Our seedlings are anywhere between 4 - 8" tall right now, depending on the variety. We don't have much space or anything fancy - we keep the pots on various windowsills where they can catch the most sunlight. They still have a month to grow before it will be considered safe to plant them here in Ohio.