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Planting seeds can be used as a sign of hope, of something new.
I live in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle Area and when they say it rains for months on end, it is true. There are days I crave a blue sky, almost anytime between October and April.
You don’t realize how much you crave a blue sky till you get one and you see everyone taking pictures of the mountain. In the Seattle area the mountain we talk about is Mt. Rainier. The pictures on these days can be magnificent.
All the other days, the months and months of the gray ones, used to really get to me until I started to do things to look forward to spring. Preparing for spring helps end my seasonal depression.
Hope for the Future
One of those things that really helps me find hope in the new season is planting seeds. I have a pretty small house so I can’t plant all of the seeds for my entire garden and care for them until Mother’s Day when they are finally ready to go in the ground.
Seed starting is a way to watch the growth and know that garden season is among us. There is a hope for a future.
Where Food Comes From
It is no exaggeration that I love littles. I went to college for an Early Childhood Development Degree and spent years with them in my home being able to make a difference in their lives.
One of my favorite springtime activities is to put a tablecloth or a big sheet on the floor, grab a tub of dirt, grab the littles, and plant seeds together. This was often done on our kitchen floor instead of outside due to the rain.
Teaching them where food comes from and having them play an active role in planting and daily watering is important to me.
Do you have a memory similar to this with your littles?
You don’t have to have a large scale backyard garden to be able to teach your children these things. The idea of learning that seeds get planted in dirt and then grow into food instead of thinking that the food always just comes from the store.
Starting a Garden
Are you wanting to start seeds?
If you are wanting to plant a garden and start from seeds there is a great app called Seed Time. I had signed up for the free part of the program and it is so helpful entering in what you want to plant, when you should, when to move it outside etc.
The Rooted Life: Cultivating Health and Wholeness Through Growing Your Own Food by Justin Rhodes is a great resource. This book helps you from seeds to recipes. Take a look. Let me know what you think.
Are you looking around and realize you have a small space to grow something? Take a look at the Homestead Anywhere ebook for some great ideas to help you with your next growing project.
Sharing Hope
During the start of the pandemic we were having such a hard time trying to keep our grandma safe. She is in her 90’s, lonely, and scared of being by herself.
We would visit her and stand outside talking to her through the glass. On one of our visits we brought her a tray of seeds, knowing full well she wouldn’t be eating anything green. She is almost like a little kid wanting cookies instead of veggies.
That spring Grandma grew her tray of veggie starts and she was so proud of them. It gave her something new to talk about during our daily calls instead of the news that she was watching.
It gave her hope for the future.
Remembering Our Past, Enjoying Our Victories
During this time of uncertainty, Grandma talked more about growing up right after the depression and through WWII. I had grown up on a farm and was used to everyone just having a garden.
Did you grow up having a garden?
Listening to Grandma talk more about the victory gardens from her early years was so interesting to me. There is so much that we can learn when we get back to our roots and learn from our past, giving hope to the future.
Playing In the Dirt
There is something calming and healing about getting your hands in the dirt and watching something grow. The nurturing of watering and caring for it moves you outside of your own thoughts and into worrying about something else.
When the idea of the seed starting post first came to me I thought it would go in one direction, but as I sit here to write I went a whole different direction. A direction I felt compelled to go.
I thought I would talk about different plants to plant and maybe when. When I thought about this it was overwhelming as so many of you are in different places, different zones. Frankly, there are some great pages out there to help you with the specifics of your area which is beyond my expertise.
For the US this is a great tool to figure out what your planting zone is.
This link also has Canada and other countries around the world.
Really what was on my heart to share with you today is that planting seeds may be more than just the seeds in the ground. Faith, hope and love are seeds to be planted too.
Faith and Hope or tomatoes and peas, all seeds are important!
What seeds are you planting this spring?
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