My fingers are itching to get into the soil. I have spend a good part of the winter reading garden books, going through magazines that show gardens which I will never be able to create. I have ordered seeds that now sit waiting on my shelf with the garden journals and information books. I have planned out the dates for when I should or can begin planting. Those dates that will help me be sure I have plants ready to go in the ground by our last frost date.
The all magical date for us here in Minneapolis, Mn is May 15th. I will be ready I tell myself.
Then I look closer at my office with the seeds and realize that I have a problem. Sitting in a nice box is the shelving unit and the grow lights. Neatly boxed up and ready but the space is not. The new sunroom is a long ways from being done (location for the new grow lights.) There is wiring and floor tiles and wall board to go up. All this depends are multiple people and schedules to get done.
So plan B was formed Saturday night. I pulled my old grow light out of the garage where everything from our basement now resides until that project is finished. It is just beginning and it will be weeks before that is in any shape. Up comes the big long light. I am sure I measured it and it will fit on the table in my office with all the house plants. I move the house plants and bring in the light. So excited to get this set up. It is by a south window so there will be sunlight during the day as well.
Well, for having taught 4, 5 and 6th grade math all of which includes lots of measuring units I discover that the measuring I did a month or so ago is all off. The nice skinny long light is just too long. Not just an inch but by 4 and 1/2 inches. How could I be that far off? Darn, double darn!
All the house plants are back on that table. The grow lights sitting on the floor in my office looking a bit sorry that it can’t be turned on. It was dusted and cleaned up before it came into this space. I am lost as to what to do.
My office now holds two boxes that contain the new lights and shelving, several container of family photos that I did not want to go into the garage, a good size table of house plants and three large plants of my daughters (she needed them revived – actually saved). There is my desk with my paint and drawing stuff shoved over to the side and my notebooks and notes I am using to track both construction projects. There is also the two large shelves of children’s books I can’t get rid of / won’t get rid of. Then the two shelves of “how to” drawing and painting plants books. There is a path just large enough for my yoga mat and for me to crawl onto the little couch to work on my computer. In reality it is quiet cozy – plants, books, artistic materials. I am in my element BUT –
Can I really add 2 or three trays of seedling under a grow light on the floor? Is it realistic to think I can do that without ruining the wood floor? Can I really fit more into this space? Can I really take on another project while there are two big construction projects going on and a 2 and 1/2 year old running around 5 days a week? I think I need to have a serious talk with myself.
Outlined in my garden journals are the plans for a big summer overhaul of the gardens. The seeds in waiting are for that overhaul. I am beginning to think I need to scale back. It will be many weeks before I can put seedling out on the back deck. Then about four weeks before those plants go into the ground. Those tray will need to be inside for at least 4 to 6 weeks. Yikes! What was I thinking.
What I was thinking was this house project was not going to start until May when all my seedling would be enjoying full sun on the deck in my little hoop house. This construction project began two months early – right in the time frame for indoor spring seed planting.
I also realize as I share this adventure with you that I am back in my crazy too many projects going on mode. This was my teaching style. The parents and kids loved it but we always had so many things happening at once. I am a master at full blown projects involving speakers or field trips to see how something was made or done. The researching this idea, writing about it and then finally having the kids go into full creation mode. An example was the year we did our research unit about photography. There was reading about photographer, we had a guest speaker talk about taking good pictures while the kids were learning how to take notes. Then a field trip to a dark room to participate in the development of film. We then make pinhole cameras and developed those image plus using disposable cameras to take photos as well. They wrote artist statements and created a gallery showing of their mounted images. This was happening while math, science and all the other parts of a standard curriculum was going on. It was wild, crazy, great fun and exhausting.
It is clear I am creating that same crazy over engaged experience once again – this time I am the only one who is in the middle of all the adventure. People told me long ago that I needed to find a balance and scale back. It appears they were right.
My question is how do I do that? All of this is fun, exciting and keeps me engaged. I know that by the time summer arrives the house work will be completed and I will be free to step out into the gardens to work. So what do I do about seedlings?
I hear a voice in my head saying change the gardens, buy a few more plants instead of growing them from seed. Maybe this year is the year to set the stage for a large garden overhaul. Maybe this year is just moving the existing plants around, prepping garden beds and weeding.
I need to use the art of scaling back? I am not so good at that but it is clear I need to learn how.
Wish me luck!
Words from JL 
Listen to that voice in your head. I think you’ve already figured out the answers. More plants, less seed, just for this year. Results: more sanity, less crazy, good benefits.