The Resurrection Garden

The small, brownie looking blocks on the table are actually made from peet moss, compost, green sand, and water.

We were once gardeners. What seems like many years ago. Now, after lying dormant for season upon season, our inner gardener has arisen and, with it, the desire to grow beautiful things. 

Having just moved to a new home with a sizable backyard, we now have the opportunity to start a new garden. Several trips to the local nursery later, we are ready to roll. This afternoon, I broke out my old soil block set to sow some seeds for our fall vegetable and herb garden. I first read about soil blocks from Eliot Coleman, and eagerly ordered them through Johnny's Seeds. They are a wonderful way to start seeds without plastic or peet pots. They come in several sizes, and you can actually transplant a soil block seedling to a larger soil block in a very clever, "nesting" sort of way. 

Anyway, given that it's already mid-July, we have sown the beginnings of a fall garden: red leaf lettuce, spinach, a mesclun mix, micro greens, arugula, mizuna, and bush beans. I caved and bought a surprisingly healthy looking tomato plant that I will repot later today with oregano, parsley, and basil. We have derived great inspiration and advice from a fabulous book called The Bountiful Container, by Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey. They have excellent ideas on how to grow herbs, vegetables, and fruit in containers. 

Words of Wisdom

Some advice on how to help your kid become a good writer from M. Molly Backes, via Ta-Nehisi Coates:

First of all, let her be bored. Let her have long afternoons with absolutely nothing to do. Limit her TV-watching time and her internet-playing time and take away her cell phone. Give her a whole summer of lazy mornings and dreamy afternoons. Make sure she has a library card and a comfy corner where she can curl up with a book. Give her a notebook and five bucks so she can pick out a great pen. Insist she spend time with the family. It’s even better if this time is spent in another state, a cabin in the woods, a cottage on the lake, far from her friends and people her own age. Give her some tedious chores to do. Make her mow the lawn, do the dishes by hand, paint the garage. Make her go on long walks with you and tell her you just want to listen to the sounds of the neighborhood. 
Let her be lonely. Let her believe that no one in the world truly understands her. Give her the freedom to fall in love with the wrong person, to lose her heart, to have it smashed and abused and broken. Occasionally be too busy to listen, be distracted by other things, have your nose in a great book, be gone with your own friends...
Let her go without writing if she wants to. Never nag her about writing, even if she’s cheerful when writing and completely unbearable when she’s not. Let her quit writing altogether if she wants to.
Let her make mistakes...
Keep her safe but not too safe, comfortable but not too comfortable, happy but not too happy...

TNC sums it up beautifully: 
Failure and boredom are underrated forces for good in this world.