Wide Mouth Jar: Spring Waits For No Woman

Gardening is my leap of faith. I wonder, every single time, if the seeds I plant will come up, if the plants we buy and put in will actually fruit, if the zinnias will actually flower etc... but it generally always works out, seeds do what they are supposed to do, as do zucchini seedlings when you give them soil and water.

So this year as I planned our garden and bought seeds I tried to keep that in mind. But then, this year there is that wild card of gardening with children...

...how could you not let them plant seeds for you? Translation: it is impossible to keep their fingers out of dirt without tears and drama and since some children don't sleep ever, ever, ever you have to just go ahead and do it with non-nappers in tow, cause in the end, as long as it takes in coming, Spring waits for no woman. She is just around the corner, or so I hear, and we need not wait to get our seeds started.

So we garden with children and enlist the help of neighbors who also have children because you might as well just go for the full experience, right? Humor me and nod your heads.

What all that means is this, I have no idea how deeply the seeds have been planted, how many in each container and am just hoping that the labels are right. I just got down on my hands and knees to look at one flat and the seeds were there, sitting ON TOP of the soil just plain as can be. Now, instead of worrying that the seeds wont come up the fruits wont fruit and the flowers wont flower, I am also wondering if I invited too much chaos by having a garden at all this year...I mean really it is like having more children except I have plants- potentially a whole lot of them. 48 peas, 16 cabbages, 16 broccoli, 4 parsley, 24 chard, 15 tomatoes 100,000 lettuces, white sages and holy basils, and 20 calendula to be exact. That is just the early seedlings, not counting the ones that start in a few weeks...
What was I thinking? I was thinking they wouldn't come up. Or maybe that only a small percentage would. Like maybe 1%

And then the other thoughts start creeping in...such as just maybe, what if they all come up? Gulp. What if the sheet mulching isn't done yet and I have to fit all these plants in to a bed the size of my bathroom? So I went to look at my seedlings yesterday, thinking to myself that I was being silly, it has only been three days since you started these, there is no way they are coming up already, the packets said 5-7 days at 75 degrees which it has not been back in that room and this is what I saw...I experienced honest wonder and surprise that there are sprouts there.