Sow This: Gardening 101

My grandpa used to keep three gardens. Sometimes all three at once or he would rotate them. Two of them were very large. He always encouraged me and my brother to help and there is no better reward for a day of work than your grandpa handing you a carrot pulled right out of the ground and rinsed off with the hose except of course a day spent with your grandpa. I miss these days terribly and I have spent a lot of time recently regretting that I didn't learn or retain the things that I learned from my grandpa. He was a very special man that because of the circumstances of his childhood knew how to do everything. Gardening is now the talent that I am admiring the most. Since Henry was conceived I have spent a LOT of time learning how to raise this baby in the best possible way. One of the things that I have been adamant about is not feeding him jarred processed baby food. Trying to keep him as preservative free as possible is going to be one of the biggest challenges. When we bought this house (right after we found out we were pregnant) I decided that a large portion of the sizable back yard would be dedicated to a garden. This sounds like a great idea...I will have something to do, I can teach these boys about food and work, and I can offer my family healthy food...then it dawned on me that I have no idea what I'm doing.
An old friend who has styled himself a farmer told me about seedsavers.org. I can buy seeds here and actually use the vegetables that I grow to create seed for future crops. Because of hybridization you cannot do this with seeds purchased at your run of the mill box store. So I visited seedsavers and proceeded to research and fill my basket with what I can only visualize as a beautiful bountiful garden. Then I realized that I have no idea how much space I will need for all of these things. Then I realized that I don't really know how to till. Then I realized that I don't know how to start seeds inside and keep the cats from destroying them. Then I realized that I don't know how to put up a fence to keep our yard bunnies out of our garden. Then I realized that I was about to spend a lot of money on seeds for a garden that I really don't know how to make happen.
So I printed all the material I could find on growing the things that I had picked out. I started working on measurements. Then I realized that I took so much time agonizing over this that my basket was unceremoniously emptied. Now I have to start all over. This is no small undertaking...it's not like I can just choose tomatoes...there a jillion to choose from...all beautiful and all with a story. But I don't remember what I chose. I guess maybe this is a good thing. Now I will work on my measurements first, dole out the space, THEN choose the seeds, and choose seeds that can just be thrown in the ground...none of this starting inside stuff. My cats are evil and crafty.
Now a rational person would read this and think "it's just a garden" but for me this has somehow become a measurement of my worth as a mother and nurturer. I've also discovered that having a baby makes you measure your worth in bizarre ways. So my new measurement is my grandpa. I will try to channel Doc and hope that he will send me the garden vibes and help me meet the bar that he set. It's a tall bar and it's big shoes.