Garden Style

Springtime Magical Thinking

I was in rural Georgia this past weekend visiting family and they had seeds starting under grow lights, cool weather sprouts coming up in the tilled land outside and seed catalogs galore to thumb through.

I haven’t grown vegetables in my garden in about six years. I burned out one summer through a combination of bad mushroom compost, multiple hail storms and extreme heat. Thumbing through the thick catalog with gorgeous photos of produce filled me with that weird magical thinking that hits me every spring. I could do this. I could grow my own vegetables. I could have stunning planters everywhere you look. This could be me.

The optimism that hits me in the spring is so profound that you have to wonder if it’s just hardwired into humans. We are Springtime Magical Thinkers. My future August self that has lived through 10 days near or at 100 with no rain rain in sight seems absurd to my Springtime self. In March, I’m confident that version of me won’t happen this year. Things will be lush, things will be green and I will feast like a queen on homegrown vegetables and herbs for the rest of the year.

Here are a few inspiration images to get the other Magical Springtime Thinkers going this season. Collectively we can do this.

Herb garden start. Look at the beautiful basil. (Photo Source)
A water-wise cutting garden – just lovely (Photo Source)
I love a naturalistic style garden. This one is appealing to me as a Colorado gardener with it’s emphasis on drought tolerant plants. (Photo Source)
I love the brick planter here. I like a messy garden. (Photo Source)
I keep seeing these raised beds everywhere. (Photo Source)
This is so lovely. If you have time check out these images of Little Oak Farm in Tasmania. (Photo Source)
Highly underrated: Inside looking out at gardens that other people have toiled over. (Photo Source)
Wide paths for a wheelbarrow seem smart to me – I also love the look of vegetables and herbs packed in. (Photo Source)
Gorgeous herb garden. In Colorado, most herbs are pretty easy to grow and I do tend to have a lot of them. Pots dry out really fast for me so I usually have these in the ground. (Photo Source)

Let’s do this! I’m going for more flowers and herbs this year. Like years past, I think I’ll forgo the vegetables but I could be persuaded otherwise if I could be convinced that it would live into our brutal Augusts without me out there babying it every day.

“Spring is the time of plans and projects.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

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