After ten years blogging on about gardening and motherhood here at Seeds & Stones, I have moved most of my content and added new juice to my new website, Erin Growing Home.
It’s been a slow migration I started over a year ago, but if you haven’t already checked it out, you really should. Growing Home has lots of my garden blog posts, but I have also added classes, recommendations and of course the every popular Instagram feed…
But perhaps most importantly if you sign up for my Erin Growing Home Newsletter you will receive my latest and most dearest project, a carefully crafted Planting Calendar which is the culmination of 20 years of great attention paid to gardening like it’s my job! I worked very closely with an amazing artist and dear friend of Tree of Life Studio to create this beauty and we are both very pleased with our baby.
The Growing Home Garden Year is a beautiful map to guide you through the growing year, including when to start seeds indoors, outdoors, and in cold frames. It highlights what to plan for in your garden each month, and what to gather & glean from the wild in the harvest season. The work of the inner garden is not forgotten: what to tend in the garden of your soul throughout the seasonal cycles is woven in as well. May it guide you on your way to Growing Home.
So go ahead, jump over to see what Erin Growing Home has sprouted into!
So, some of you know this about me and have asked for tips, guidance and curriculum… so I will attempt to share a few things I enjoy and mind you there are tons more out there I haven’t explored, but one parent can only take in so much.
My advice, don’t over think it, don’t over spend on resources that will give you one more thing to do, don’t worry about downloading information into your child’s brain… just do you and let your children enjoy you as their chosen guide. Trust if you stay open to using the world as your classroom your children will learn more than they ever could inside four walls. Being on the journey together to meet each other and the world before you could be the very medicine we all need and the secret message of these times.
With a piece of medium weight 
We used plastic clips to attach the row cover to the tank and clothes pins to hold the row cover to the wire hoops bought at Walmart.
Happy Earth Day- which is every day for me, but it always good to remember where you came from, your mother earth!
Moisture– Don’t water by habit, water by feel. You don’t need to water every day but you do need to visit your seedlings everyday. Touch the soil, get up close. If the soil is moist to the touch (moist as a rung out sponge) you don’t need to water. Seeds are only in the first inch of soil so this is the area that needs to be moist. If when you touch the soil your fingers aren’t moistened, water. I water daily, but on a cloudy day if the soil isn’t drying out, I leave it. Outside I use row cover over my seeds, like a blanket. I sow the seeds, water and them put row cover over them, then water the row cover. I peek every day or so to check the moisture and water if need be. When I see sprouts, I remove the row cover and place mini hoops over the bed, then I put the row cover over the hoops so the seedlings don’t get squashed, but still are protected against wind, birds, cats, children, etc… I do fold the row cover back to water with a sprinkler until I have my irrigation up and running. 
***Note- I always water with a watering can or sprinkler with a very fine spray. Seeds are fragile and can be blasted out of place by a hose or heavy flow from a can.*** Just like this little gardener!
Temperature–
I plant peas in the snow and it works every time! Many people are planting carrot now, which is fine, but it is still chilly out there and they do take a while! You can do a few things heat up the soil faster like row cover, plastic covers, or mulch, and indoors heating mats work really well for peppers, eggplant and tomatoes, especially in January!… but the soil will warm up soon enough, wait for it!
Mulch-Mulching is wonderful and necessary to retain moisture, create soil biology and protect your plants, but if a seed bed is over mulched before the seedlings are 3 inches tall it can suppress plants from coming up through it. I usually apply wet straw mulch around my seedlings, after they are 3 inches tall. If you do mulch with straw over a seed bed, make sure it is light and lose so the seedlings can push up through it. Like I mentioned above- Outside I like to use row cover to retain moisture till I get good germination.
Other Factors–
Easter morning, the sun still rises over the mountains and the tulips still burst forth. Prayers of hope, health and new life are stronger today than any Easter I can remember. This morning my children get my attention, marveling in the miracle of colored eggs and a few new books. They are the hope for the world and today their joy brings me deep into my own, being grateful for just having them, and just to be with them is a gift many won’t be able to enjoy today. If you are blessed to be with someone you love today, here is a little story of humility, authenticity and sharing our unique gifts with the world you could share with those you love.
Lady Spring had an idea. She called out to all the animals of the forest, and they gathered in the meadow. She told them all that the good people of the village needed their help. Someone must share the news that Spring was here. Who would do it?
Seeds & Stones 