I’m pretty sure I went a little overboard buying seeds today. It’s another gloomy early spring day and the garden center had me under its spell—it was like grocery shopping hungry. Also, I had the girls with me and they kept pointing to seed packets and saying things like, “Look, they have purple carrots!” or “Can I plant these pretty flowers?” I don’t even know how big my garden plot is but I splashed out anyway. I did get mostly compact and container-friendly varieties of vegetables, though, so I could always keep some at home.

As I pored over the seed packets I imagined myself in my gardening hat gathering the harvest. I imagined Cheyenne and Isabella eating veggies straight from the plant. I imagined the luscious, amazing meals I would make from the bounty of my garden, and the tranquil peaceful setting the flowers would create on my patio.

Then I got home and all of my insecurity kicked in. I don’t know why, but I am kind of nervous about failing at this. Ever since I was a kid I have wanted to be good at gardening. The Secret Garden was my all-time favorite book when I was younger and I loved to imagine myself as Mary, coaxing things to life and caring for my “bit of earth.” I think I’m afraid I’m going to shatter that daydream or something ridiculous like that. I need to turn off my inner perfectionist on this project and just look at it as an experiment.

When we got home I sorted the seeds by when they needed to be started. The anaheim peppers, black cherry tomatoes (I know, I already said I had too many tomatoes), violas, delphinium and some white flower I got for free needed to be started today. A few others like the zucchini and basil need to be started a few weeks before the last frost and the rest can be planted directly in the ground. I also got some cat grass for the kitties that can be started indoors at any time.

The violas were Cheyenne’s pick. She is obsessed with the color purple. They are an edible flower, which makes me happy. We found a pretty yellow flower pot in the garage and together we planted the seeds. I think the purple flowers will look very cheerful in their yellow pot.

I planted the black cherry tomatoes, anaheim peppers, and delphinium by myself as Cheyenne had run off by then. I used the electrical tape marking system I came up with on Sunday. The white flowers were Bella’s choice so I waited for her to wake up from her nap, then we planted them together.

Finally I planted the cat grass. the package said to plant it in something flat like a bowl, so I dug out an old roasting pan that we found in the garage. I’m not comfortable using it for cooking, but it made a cute container for the cat grass. I considered getting catnip too, but my cat Anakin is a recovering catnip junkie and I was pretty sure it would be destroyed almost immediately.

In case you are curious, here’s a list of the seeds I got that haven’t been mentioned already: Cucumber, Lemon cucumber, Summer squash, Basil, Thai basil, Mesclun, Italian Parsley, Cilantro, Mint, Chives, Two kinds of nasturtiums, Leeks, Snap peas, Carrots, Purple carrots, Daisies, Forget-me-nots, Marigolds—I told you I went nuts!

Some are for the community garden and some are for the house. There are a few more plants I want to get—a type of pumpkin meant for smaller spaces, tomatillos, purple curly leaf basil, chervil, and more flowers and herbs that I won’t know I need until I see them. I’ll probably hit the farmer’s market for some plants later in the spring.