The Bee Does Quickly Sting

Sweater: thrifted * Pants: Old Navy * Loafers: c/o Common Crow Vintage * Belt: thrifted * Bangle: H&M

My mind has been a blur of spring break anticipation for the past few days. I'm not in school anymore, so I don't have the week off, but I'm planning on taking a few days off next week and spending them with Joe. I'm so looking forward to having a bit of a break and being out of the city for awhile. I do love Chicago, but as I've said before, I'm a small town girl at heart, and too much time amidst the hustle and bustle wears me down. Plus, Joe and I just found out that we are getting a community garden plot this year, so I'm totally planning on spending a bit of my break scoping out our plot and planning our first crops (of course, I won't be actually planting those crops until later, but it's never too early to start thinking about it!).

As most of you who have been reading Between Laundry Days for awhile know, my ongoing goal for the past months has been to work on simplifying and prioritizing my life. There are a lot of parts of that goal, and I've been working on quieting my mind during moments when it would otherwise freak out, cooling my heels when I want to run, and focusing my energies on happy, productive things. I've also been actively and avidly exploring the world of food, and figuring out how I can incorporate what I eat into my simplification process. Part of that is addressing how I feel about certain food production methods and impacts, and evaluating my stance and thoughts about eating "ethical" foods (I'll probably get a post going at some point about that, but I'm still very much knee-deep in reading and thinking about it all, so I probably won't be eloquent enough to talk about it for awhile). A big part of it is trying to minimize my environmental impact on the world through what I eat. The local food movement is one of the things I've been reading and thinking about for awhile, and I've been working on actively changing my consuming habits to make a positive, local impact on the economy and environment. What better way to do that than to grow my own veggies?! I'm so excited to start this garden, both for my own leisure time (it will be lovely to have something to do outdoors now that the weather is getting better!), and for my belly. I think it's going to be an awesome new adventure for us.

It's funny, because my mom has been making fun of me for being so excited about the community garden plot. She used to garden a lot when I was a kid, and I absolutely hated doing garden stuff. In retrospect, I'm not sure why. I think I just didn't appreciate what it was she was doing, and how my participation could actually be fun, and not a chore. Thinking back now, I wish I had taken the time to help. It sounds so lovely, now, spending days on my knees in the dirt with my mom, digging up weeds and planting flowers and veggies. This is a long overdue apology for my lack of interest, Mom, but there you have it.

I also wish I had helped my mom garden while I was growing up, because then I would know the first thing about gardening. I've been reading up about it, and I know I have general ideas about what to grow, when to grow it, and how to make it thrive, but I think that there are probably major gaps in my understanding of how this is going to go. Plus, my frame of reference for gardening is not in the Midwest, so I'm a bit puzzled on how to convert what I do know into this climate and growing season. I'm planning to rely pretty heavily on Joe's experience, expertise, and enthusiasm (he did help his mom garden as a kid, so he has a one-up on me in that arena).

Are any of you avid gardeners? Do you have any must-read suggestions for a relative newbie like me? And must-grow crops we should plant?

Title song: Mirah, "The Garden"