"Faster Than a Flower Blooms"

 Today I was able to spend some time alone in my garden as Maggie took the kids out to dinner with their grandma. It was rare and felt a little alien to me to not, at the moment, be directly responsible for a child. It was nice. I was able to weed around some of my plants (pictures of those in a minute) and also plant a second round of a few vegetables (details on those soon too). But what it really allowed me was time to think. Maybe that is part of why I like gardening so much. It gives you the chance to reflect and in my mind, it is also a reflection of life itself. The different cycles and growth, the need to weed out things before they drag you down and the overall connection to the Earth.

 But today I found myself thinking about my down time. It is always nice but also bittersweet. We all need our mental breaks. But I also know that in the blink of an eye, the kids will be grown. I hate to feel like I'll miss anything. These kind of thoughts got my mind turning to music as I feel music can speak to us in so many different ways. I've never heard this song before today but I found it and felt it spoke to what I was thinking. It is called "Let Them Be Little" and is written and performed by Billy Dean. I'm not always a fan of country music and under normal circumstances I might have just glossed right over this one. But it was sappy and that's right where my head was/is. The title for this post comes from a line in the song.

I'm not sure if I mentioned in a previous blog that my cayenne peppers I tried to start from seed never sprouted. But they didn't. I believe the seeds were too old. Because of this, I went to Horrocks (local Farmers style market here in Lansing, Michigan) with the intent of getting a pepper plant or two since it is getting a little late in the season for starting the peppers from seed again. Look what I found.

Danger Kitty. 

So that should be fun. I don't really have a good track record with keeping the hot oils from peppers off of other parts of my body. I may have to get a full body suit for that Ghost Pepper plant. 

I mentioned earlier that I put in a second round planting. Those seeds are my three different carrots (Paris Market, Chantenay Red Cored, and Purple Haze), two different beets (Burpee Golden and Chioggia), spinach, and Easter Egg radishes. I would take some pictures but... really... it just looks like dirt right now. Not only indistinguishable but also pretty boring. 

Not boring (at least not to me...)? Actual green plants! First up, carrot seedlings. 

Carrot seedlings are notoriously small. It's like a Where's Waldo of the plant world!

And now the beets! Beets are interesting in that their seed is actually a cluster of 3 to 4 seeds so no matter how careful you are about spacing them, you will almost always need to go back through and thin them as you will tend to have a few sprouts coming up in one spot.

Cluster of beets. 

This is what passes as traffic signs in Gerich Gardens

Next are the Mini Purplette red onions. 

These are the seedlings that were started inside and transplanted out.

And these are the same onions but from seed that I planted in the ground. 

Lettuce check in with the lettuce... Funny guy. 

Here is the Cos lettuce I transplanted out as seedlings

A closer look

Going to need to transplant some of these... 

And Popeyes favorite...

Clearly this was before I had weeded

The radishes will be the first things ready to pull from the garden. 

Look at all those awesome radish leaves

Last but not least, peas! 

Ok, so I know that was a lot of pictures but I was a tad bit excited at all the growth. It can be attributed to a whole bunch of rain in late April followed by the beautiful weather filled with high 70's and low 80's for high temps the last week. It is the culmination of months of planning through cold winter days finally being realized. Next time I'll update you on all of the tomato and bell pepper sprouts along with some of the other flower/vegetable seeds I just started this weekend.

Remember... things go by faster than you think. Live in the moment and appreciate what has been given. It might be gone "faster than a flower blooms."