Even though this year....

Here it is spring again.  At least the calendar says so.  I find it hard to remember a colder more miserable March and April myself.  After the lying promise of February with it's warm weather and sunny skies, it's pretty much your basic cruel hoax to see what the weather has turned into these past few weeks.

I admit to being a Weather Channel junkie - every morning when I am down on the floor trying to convince myself that somehow these stretches and bends and so forth are actually going to miraculously fine tune my body into a lean, mean flexible machine, I watch my buddies on the TV try to convince me that they are actually in the know for at least the next 24 hours. 

(By the way, how's that for a run on sentence?)

Anyhow, it's spring no matter what the weather - the days are getting longer if not that much better and although I swore that this year I would not "garden" with as much enthusiasm as I normally do, I find myself planning where things would grow the best.

Looked at last year's calendar and find that apparently this urge to plant strikes me at about the same time each year.

So, sometime today I will plant at least the peas.  I have a lot of seeds left from last year so the germination may not be all that great.  That just means I'll plant extra and probably end up with too many plants in a small space!

On the other hand, I may plant the beets too - maybe not carrots this year although they've done so well the past couple of years it's worth the extra effort to thin the plants.

And I'll probably make a stab at some greens.  After all, otherwise that little planter will just sit there alone and lonely with nothing growing in it.

And I know that small area will produce almost more greens than I can eat up as they grow.

So, here's your spring nudge:  if you have a little bit of dirt or a couple of big pots, you too could be thinking about where to plant at least a few things.  The seeds are relatively inexpensive considering you end up with actual food that you know (hopefully) isn't covered with pesticides.  Container gardening particularly takes very little effort compared to plowing up the back 40 (even if you have a back 40) so why not take a little while now and make a plan.

I might (later) plant some hot pepper plants out in front of the greenhouse after all.  Shame to let those gardens go to waste.

And pickled peppers are really easy to do....

At any rate, you see how it goes - during the winter I swear I will be more sensible in my gardening - come spring?  Not so much!  So how about take a few minutes to think about an easy place that you can grow a few things to enjoy - be it a small plot of dirt or a couple of pots. 

And don't forget to keep your gas tank at least half full - just sayin!