Getting geared up for gardening

The magazines and seed catalogs are piled by the floor beside my favorite chair in the living room - a 1950s chaise lounge a friend slipcovered for me. When I have a minute between deadlines and errands and housekeeping, I sit down with a cup of tea and read. This is a dangerous way to spend a few minutes. Like many, I love the idea of growing at least some of what I eat. When I walk into the kitchen on a summer day and slice one of my own tomatoes for a salad, or sprinkle my own herbs in a frittata made with eggs from my own hens, I feel a sense of satisfaction like no other. I don’t live on a farm. As a matter of fact, my lot on a street in a city neighborhood is smaller than most. A large part of the width of my standard 50-foot back yard is occupied by a 30-foot garage added by a previous owner. My “garden” is grown entirely in containers. I don’t harvest bushels of anything. I fill bowls from the kitchen or a small basket kept on the patio for just that purpose. Fall and winter are spent planning, preparing and dreaming. In spring, it’s time to get started on the summer’s garden. Instead of purchasing plastic seed trays, I use yogurt cups to start seedlings. They’re sturdier, larger than the trays sold at the garden center and I’ve always got a few yogurt cups around the house, leftover from field-trip lunches or snacks picked up on the go. Sadly, yogurt cups and other rigid plastics aren’t always included in curbside recycling pick-up programs. At least this way, they can be useful before being taken to larger recycling centers. Spring is officially here. It’s finally time to stop dreaming and start planting.