Sprung.

It's finally starting to be spring in Kansas.

Actually, it's taking much longer than I'd hoped. We had almost two solid weeks of beautiful warm weather immediately followed by a nasty winter storm. Brian and I had just cleared the yard of debris and were planning a trip to the yard waste facility, and now our backyard looks like a disaster area and there are limbs everywhere.

Today I have to make my way outside to set aside the limbs I'll be using as plant supports, and what will be used as firewood for camping trips. The rest will have to be turned into mulch.

Now I'm afraid to fully clear my flowerbeds of their protective leaf mulch, in case Winter decides to have one more tantrum. I had wanted to get pictures of the beds now that there are a few things blooming and other things finally poking up. Leaf mulch doesn't really make for great pictures, though. More importantly, I had wanted to put out my columbine seed, but don't think it will germinate well if the leaves are still down.

This is my first year starting plants from seed indoors. I was intimidated at the beginning, when I had to shell out money for heat mats and grow lights and seed starting medium (note to self--next year, use Jiffy pellets instead). Now we're almost three weeks into the process, and I have five kinds of heirloom tomatoes (Reisenstraube, Carbon, Hawaiian Pineapple, Black Krim, and Brandywine) and three kinds of heirloom peppers (Tam jalepeno, mini red bell, and yellow star hot)... Well, I planted three kinds of peppers, the yellow star peppers didn't germinate, even after two tries. But I'm not really upset, they were a freebie packet that came with my Baker Creek order. I had some trouble at first with the Hawaiian Pineapples, too, but I just dropped another seed in each empty cell, and now have six of nine going well. I was actually quite impressed at how many seeds germinated.

Almost all the seedlings in the veggie flat have developed a set of true leaves. Hooray!

On the 25th I started another flat--nine cells each of coleus, calendula, chives, cilantro, lavender, oregano, parsley, and sage. So far, each cell of calendula is up, and there are probably a hundred sprouts of oregano (oregano seeds are ridiculously small and difficult to sow by hand. You can't see where they're going). I'm going to have to have patience, though, because some of those plants take up to three weeks to germinate, and some of them have a very low germination rate.

But I'm learning. I actually may be a little obsessed. Obsessed enough that I'm considering changing my degree to horticulture and still getting a social work degree on top of that. I've been imagining a job where I can teach gardening to either children (garden therapy) or to struggling families. Or even just families in general.

So here I am. It's the last day of March. 48 degrees outside, and windy. Out like a lion, I suppose.

I've been dying for people to talk about plants with. Aaron, who I was friends with in middle school, but had fallen out of touch with, is giving it a go and, like me, is eager to talk about it all. It's funny to me. And Jordi. My best male friend's older sister, which really means that I consider her part of the large family I simply claim. I'm excited. I like having people to talk to about it. BoyWonder's eyes glaze over when I start talking about succession planting and trellises (I had to define 'trellis' a couple of days ago. jeesh.) and good places to get poop. (On that note, I found out a few days ago that a co-worker has over fifty rabbits. Hell yes.) Yes, I said poop. You know, from cows or chickens or horses. It's fertilizer. It needs to live in my compost bin.

So there is all that.

I know this has been random and rambling. But that's what it says, right up on the lefthand side of this screen, right? And like I said, I don't have anywhere else to dump my random, rambling ADHD-affected gardening thoughts. This is a good place for them. And no, I probably won't try to organize them or make them eloquent or even overly intelligent. I could, I suppose, but I need somewhere for disorganized thought.

And with that, I'm off.