My Secret Garden

You can search my whole yard and you will not find it. Mainly because it isn't in my yard. It's in my dining room.

That's right, I started a garden in my dining room. That wasn't the intention when James and I started it. We planned on starting the seedlings indoors and then transitioning them to the yard when the time came to transplant. However, the weather has been so inconsistent and we had great fear that none of the little sprouts would survive. But we also had to handle the problem of needing to transplant them. So, the only answer we could come up with was to continue our garden indoors.

James and I always wanted a vegetable garden. We started one at a house we were renting years back. Shortly after our garden began to grow and looked like it was flourishing, the house flooded and we had to leave while repairs were being done. There were many delays and by the time we were able to return, our whole garden had died. It broke our hearts. Then, shortly after that, we moved. We decided we wouldn't try another garden until we had a solid place of our own. But we always talked about it. About the different veggies and fruits we wanted to grow. Just doing a bit of dreamscaping, if you will. And then quarantine happened.

In quarantine I took on a small mantra: "anything that will bring you joy, or make this easier, is worth it." No matter how little or silly or even stupid the request was, if there was something that would make this whole thing easier, to me, it genuinely was worth it. I tried to accommodate any request I could in our household. Most of which were foods that we typically wouldn't have but other small things as well like trying foot masks or cleaning up the backyard to have an outdoor escape. Because it is usually the smallest things that can make these hard situations easier. We each had our requests and I think that this mindset has served its purpose well. All of that leading to James's request, and his request was to start a small vegetable garden.

I loved the idea at once. We did some research, bought our beginners supplies and got started. Before long we were seeing green! Our plants grew and and we knew we needed a plan. So we did more research, we got more supplies, and now we have a garden filling our dining room!

I'm sure we aren't doing things right, and I don't know if we will get a bounty of crop when all is said and done. But I will say that we got a lot of joy out of it. I got to bond with my husband as we got to sink our fingers into the dirt and create something together. It's been fun, something our whole house can look forward to checking the progress of every day. I wanted to share our secret garden with you all because I think we could all use a little bit of that right now. With quarantine being extended, I know some of you are feeling a dread that words can't express. But I am here to tell you that if there is anything, ANYTHING, that will make this a little easier, I promise it's worth it. I know it is hard to look past the darkness at times like this, but in that emptiness is room to create anything you want. Explore the realm of possibilities and see where it leads you. I'm sure you will find your own secret garden a long the way.

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Thank you for joining me for this messy installment of The Mess today. I hope you are all doing well, and if this wasn't your week, I hope this next one is! Start strong and I will see you back here on Wednesday with some Nerdom. In the mean time, stay safe and stay messy.