Back on One Horse — Being Dragged by Another

Not just a garden gnome, but a gardening gnome, on my greenhouse windowsill.

A couple days ago I wrote about my Skip Day.  I’m happy to report I’m back up on that horse – I’ve already made up the mileage lost on my Skip Day and my reserve mileage is as high as it has been since I began the 1200-mile challenge as my January “Someday”.

However, as my January “Someday” gallops along, my March “Someday”, gardening, is being dragged through the dirt (pun intended).  I started my composter going back in February, had soil delivered to my greenhouse by the first of March, and I’ve ordered seeds.  However, there are some things about gardening I just didn’t know.  I didn’t realize I needed a propagator (a place to grow the seeds until they’re little plants).  I thought the seeds would arrive and I’d just plop them into the soil and, voila, my garden would grow.  I also thought the sun beating down into the greenhouse would be a good thing.  Plants need sun, right?  Well, apparently they need some sun, but not too much.  Now, while I wait for my seeds and my propagator, I’m trying to figure out how I can shade the windows of my greenhouse knowing it will be beastly hot in there come summer.  I also didn’t realize different seeds should be planted at different times.  I picked March for my gardening “Someday” because I thought that’s when people started gardens.  A greenhouse gardening book I just bought gives a year-round schedule for pursuing a garden in a greenhouse.  I’m reading it and figuring out how to make this first garden successful while already planning what I’ll do differently next year.

I’m disappointed the little green plants I thought would be sprouting by now are only seeds somewhere on their way to me, but I’m learning so much.  I haven’t fallen off the gardening horse, I’m just doing a little acrobatic jumping around in the saddle as I try to figure out how this all works.