Though the days will have to be made up at the end of the school year, I can't say I'm terribly disappointed about that, given that I will be home with a newborn right about that time, so I won't be teaching then anyway! Though most of the extra time off brought rest and extended pajama time, I did manage to do a bit of work in the garden room, including replacing the broken pump in my Aerogarden, sanitizing it, and planting it with salad green seeds. Brian gave me the Aerogarden (basically a simplified hydroponic indoor growing system) for Christmas a couple years ago, and we grew a round of herbs and a round of salad greens in it, but it has been dormant for awhile, so I'm excited to get it going again. This time, instead of using their pre-packaged seed kits, I am using the "Master Gardener" kit, which allows me to plant my own seeds. I used some of my leftover gourmet salad mix seeds (organic, of course) that I have planted in my garden the last couple of years. I'm interested to see how they do in the aerogarden compared to outside in the dirt. Right now, they look like this:
but it won't take long for them to grow into nice greens. I'll post a pic when there's something to see! Hopefully it will be a success....winter would be a nice time to have fresh salad greens!
Although I've dealt with a lot of different seeds with my garden in the past couple of years, it really struck me again when I was placing these itty-bitty lettuce seeds in their teeny-tiny holes how truly amazing it is that big beautiful plants can grow from these miniscule seeds, and how the conception and growth of a baby is amazing just like that, but times a zillion! What a beautiful process!
Speaking of my garden, I also am happy to look out and see a blanket of snow on the beds. Here's the view of the snowy garden from Henry's room (the only room in the house with a garden-view!):
I like to think about all that's going on under the snow-blanket; the dirt & compost & nutrients sinking & mixing & preparing for next growing season. It's especially good this year for my two newest beds (not pictured here)- my "Three Sisters" beds (corn, squash, and beans interplanted, just like the Native Americans did; beans grow up the corn for support, squash shades the ground for less weeds). Last season, I added these beds late in the spring, and just tilled the existing soil, removing weeds by shovel & by hand. I dealt with lots of weeds all season, and not as great of production as my four main beds. My main beds, established the previous season, were no-dig; cardboard, newspaper, soil, compost, and straw mulch all layered directly on top of the grass the Fall before the growing season- all I did in the spring was add more soil and compost, and they were ready to go, grass killed, hardly any weeds, no digging, great results! So, this past Fall, I did the same no-dig layering on my Three Sisters beds, and the snow-blanket makes me happy because I know it is helping to break down the cardboard, newspaper, etc, and making a healthier, weedier-free garden for next season. I like this kind of garden work- I laid the ground work, but Mother Nature is doing the rest for me! Today we had the second of our 8-week childbirth education class. Just like preparing the garden, we are preparing for the birth. We are learning lots, and the whole thing is becoming more real every day. (Plus, Henry's pokes are getting a little stronger, which also makes it more real!). Besides being hungry a lot, I'm feeling pretty good right now, and am enjoying pregnancy!
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