I think it is spring

The last few mornings just before sunrise, there was a special quality to the air. There was a muskier warmer scent and a bit of haze. My little garden plot is refenced after the trampoline blew into it. (Thanks Handsome!) We are all getting excited about putting our seeds in the ground. All of the children are old enough this year to appreciate the miracle of gardening. Thanks to my generous friend Debbie, Jesse is going to farm in Topsy Turvys. He will have tomatoes and peppers and one with strawberries. I don't think we will plant tomatoes this year in the raised beds but see if having portable tomato plants will help us lengthen the season for them.

I can't wait to see the little plants breaking the soil. This year we are going to work with the purslane rather than against it. I am going to encourage it and use it in our green salads. It is free, full of vitamins and very tenacious. Last year I successfully reseeded my entire beds with cilantro. My favorite herb is growing like a weed and my most persistent weed is becoming an addition to my salads. Homesteading Montana style is taking an interesting turn.

I am going to try lasagna gardening in one of my beds  and broadcast multiculture in the other. We will see how it goes. I also want to get some Lavender established between my beds. I have to garden in the late evening due to sun sensitivity and I look forward to the wafting aroma of lavender  as my skirts brush against it. I also hope to get some perennial herbs like comfrey and chammomile. I would also like to get started with sunchokes. I see these all as basic, easy to replicate and having the ability to provide varied nutrition and medicinal value in these times when the "normal" way of providing for food, health, healing and aesthetics is giving way to the old ways that I love.

I hope you can get your hands in some soil this week, even if its a small amount like I have. See if you make some connection with a character from your past. I have several tweedy old farmers in my history who each taught me a little bit. I have new friends now who teach me something new every year. I imagine my ancestors would be surprised to see me learning to garden far from the red clay and poke salad of my youth. For me, I am surprised that I can pull it off at all!