Playing in the dirt

Praise God!!!! My husband is finally approved for disability - it only took about 6 months! He is bipolar and his psychiatrist feels he cannot work at this time. She has also assigned me as his caretaker and he needs me home with him full time. I've been a stay and work at home mom since before my first was born, so I wasn't working out of the home when his psychiatrist made that decision. He needs help with a lot of every day things, is unable to cook, and needs someone to help keep him thinking clearly or at least make sound decisions when he's unable.

I started many of my seeds this month at the beginning. This is the earliest I've ever started anything but I figured what the heck - I'll try it and see what happens. I want to do several plantings of the same vegetables to get a bigger harvest this season. Our garden is being expanded (by quite a bit) and my entire craft table is covered with green :-) I found that if I go to Gordons (a bulk food company) and buy some 32 oz. containers, they make excellent pots for seeds especially when I start them this early. They're deep enough to get a good root structure growing and big enough to accomodate the plants longer than normal if I would start seeds in the early spring. Poke some holes in the bottom and you're good to go! Everything I'm planting in them is being transferred over from those teeny tiny starter pods, and there is no need to keep them covered at this point but next year I may just start my seeds in these so I don't need to move them until they go outside, and I'll buy lids to lay on the top.

I don't have a final count yet on what is going in the ground. I started a lot of my seeds in one of those 72 pod trays (we have three). 2-3 seeds made it into pod and most sprouted. I discarded the weak ones and am transfering the rest that were ready to the larger containers tonight. Last year I only had 6 tomato plants and 3 cherry tomato plants. This year I think I'm going to have about 24 tomato plants and 12 cherry tomato plants (this was a huge hit last year - i just sent the kids out with a bucket to gather the cherry tomatos and they would fill up on those, and peas and green beans fresh off the vine!) I'm hoping to sell off any excess seedlings that I don't put in the ground, and hoping to make a garden for my mom this year because of a lot of things happening in her life she may not have the time (and I know she was really excited about a garden last year). I'd like to make her happy by putting a garden in and even weeding it for her if she doesn't have the time. It's a great excuse for her to see the grandkids, and an even better one for me to get my hands in the dirt and do something for her after all she has done for me. It's small, really, compared to everything she's done for me but if it's one way that I can help her, I'd love to do it.

I have some things that will be planted directly into the ground including pumpkin, watermelon, corn, onions, carrots (lots of carrots!) and more. We have a selection of flower seeds so my oldest daughter can have a flower garden.

I'm so excited for spring!