One very proud seedling mavin. She's especially impressed with the beans, which are admittedly very robust and healthy looking. Happily, the kids actually do *eat* beans!

Teeny, tiny basil. It's a long way from pesto, but pesto is coming.

Slightly out-of-focus nasturtium leaves. Grace loves how lacy and delicate they are.

The cosmos have sprouted!

Seedling update!

Bean seedlings, and cosmos.

We played outside for a few hours today and took notice of everything that's growing: the daffodils are blooming, the tulips are up, the daylily leaves are six inches tall. The kids picked some of the violets that grow wild in the yard, admired the single croucus that has bloomed, and had to be discouraged from climbing trees. (Peter's desperate, last ditch line is always: But I have to! I have to!) But the trees are budding, slightly, and the hostas are barely visible nubs in the dirt. The neighbor's peonies are already looking very vigorous, although they'll only actually bloom for a few weeks.

Our seedlings have sprouted! The nasturtiums have these delicate, lacy leaves from the very beginning, the beans are looking sturdy and respectible, and the tomatoes are spindly but plentiful. The cosmos look like they might make a go of it, but the basil hasn't done much at all.

I can't remember which of the shrubs in the backyard is the lilac, but it's what made me fall in love with the house. It's just the one now, but a neighbor told me that thirty years ago there were a dozen of them, making up a border between the two houses, all the way to the street. Down the street a few blocks from my parents' house is an abandoned ice house that hasn't been used for much longer than thirty years, and every spring the lilacs that line the building bloom so beautifully that the scent carries for blocks. We used to gather them when we were kids, and take armfuls of them home to put in vases all around the house. I think the building is still there, and the lilacs; I don't want to ask them in case it was torn down years ago. I like to picture the lilacs blooming there every spring.

Peter came well-prepared for a day spent with dirt.

Peter holding cosmos seeds. He spilled most of them on the ground, but we collected them and planted them anyway.

Nasturtium seeds.

Seeds are chosen!

Kids plant seeds.

This spring we're being optimists and planting some seedlings for the garden. Last year we bought seedlings from the local nursery and the hardware store and the grocery store, somewhat randomly rather than according to a well-thought-out plan. (Hence, last year's choice to put in 37 tomato plants.)

We planted only organic seeds - three kinds of vegetables: Sweetie pole tomatoes, Genovese basil, Kentucky Wonder pole beans, and two kinds of flowers: nasturtiums and cosmos. If any of the seeds grow into plants sturdy enough to make it in the garden, we will rejoice in our good luck; if they fail to germinate, or wither, or die after transplantaion we'll shrug our shoulders and get some hardier plants to put in.

We missed having salad greens last year, and carrots; I'd love to have some broccoli and beans. As much as I loved the tomatoes, I think we'll reduce the number of plants and give each a bit more space to grow. I might actually do some research about appropriate organic fertilizer, instead of assuming that well-rotted manure should do the trick.