That's a quote from Carl Sagan. He's not talking about some movie to defeat aliens and save the planet from invasion. He's talking about making the most of life on Earth right now. February is nearly finished and so winter is drawing to a close for another year. The Vernal Equinox, when the sun is half way between the summer and winter solstice, is coming in 3 weeks and we can clearly see the days getting longer here in the northern hemisphere. It's now light when we go to work and school and when we come home. The long dark is over.
With the growing height of the sun in the sky we're starting to feel more warmth from the light even on days that are bitterly cold. So it's time to think about the early plants for the garden. March in Nova Scotia is always a mix of bitter cold winter weather and warm springlike days. So planting things out into regular garden beds is still impossible because the tender young plants would just freeze solid on a bad day. But to get a jump on gardening we're starting our seeds indoors and thinking about setting up a lean-to greenhouse or some other way of having our seedlings get the light and warmth from the sun during the day and still stay warm at night. The reality for us at the moment means we'll be moving trays indoors at night and outside to the lean-to when it's warmed up. That's not for another week at least though as we just had a -14 night. We're not our of winter yet. But we're hopeful. Next year we will have a year round greenhouse located behind our home and that will allow for a lot more out of season growing so stay tuned for more details as the year progresses. Our first plastic greenhouse covers will be here shortly and we'll let you know how they work out.
Meghan's lettuce seeds and radishes she planted in cups have come through and their little green heads have brought her a huge amount of joy. There's something that's always amazing about seeing a dried up little seed put forth it's first root and leaves and it never fails to strike me as glorious! She'll no doubt have pics up soon.
This year I'd like to encourage you to try one thing each week that's good for the environment. Or maybe something that's good for mankind. Maybe you'll switch laundry detergent to something less polluting or grow lettuce for one meal. Maybe you'll participate in Earth Hour and switch off some lights or hang your clothes out on a clothes line to dry instead of using the dryer. Whatever you do, can you imagine how great it would be if a billion people were doing something at the same time? Each person on the planet, one time per week. That's 7 billion things each week.
Sometimes we have to start small with the world around us. Teaching our children, exploring new ideas, being kind to someone else. It was Mother Theresa who said "we can do no great things, just small things with great love" and she was right.
With the growing height of the sun in the sky we're starting to feel more warmth from the light even on days that are bitterly cold. So it's time to think about the early plants for the garden. March in Nova Scotia is always a mix of bitter cold winter weather and warm springlike days. So planting things out into regular garden beds is still impossible because the tender young plants would just freeze solid on a bad day. But to get a jump on gardening we're starting our seeds indoors and thinking about setting up a lean-to greenhouse or some other way of having our seedlings get the light and warmth from the sun during the day and still stay warm at night. The reality for us at the moment means we'll be moving trays indoors at night and outside to the lean-to when it's warmed up. That's not for another week at least though as we just had a -14 night. We're not our of winter yet. But we're hopeful. Next year we will have a year round greenhouse located behind our home and that will allow for a lot more out of season growing so stay tuned for more details as the year progresses. Our first plastic greenhouse covers will be here shortly and we'll let you know how they work out.
Meghan's lettuce seeds and radishes she planted in cups have come through and their little green heads have brought her a huge amount of joy. There's something that's always amazing about seeing a dried up little seed put forth it's first root and leaves and it never fails to strike me as glorious! She'll no doubt have pics up soon.
This year I'd like to encourage you to try one thing each week that's good for the environment. Or maybe something that's good for mankind. Maybe you'll switch laundry detergent to something less polluting or grow lettuce for one meal. Maybe you'll participate in Earth Hour and switch off some lights or hang your clothes out on a clothes line to dry instead of using the dryer. Whatever you do, can you imagine how great it would be if a billion people were doing something at the same time? Each person on the planet, one time per week. That's 7 billion things each week.
Sometimes we have to start small with the world around us. Teaching our children, exploring new ideas, being kind to someone else. It was Mother Theresa who said "we can do no great things, just small things with great love" and she was right.
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