Full measures, the hero, and the friends

Never one to do things by half measures, I've started my gardening with a bang.

 I spent many snowy months pouring over seed catalogs in spare moments- Richters, West Coast Seeds, Seed Savers, Seeds of Change, Territorial Seeds- I compared and contrasted varieties, descriptions, zones.  I imagined perennials in my orchard and annuals in the center of the circle driveway, medicinal herbs I would learn to preserve and use, my favorite flowers in bloom.

I got carried away. 
I fully acknowledge that I am a novice.
It would have been much more prudent to start small.
Wiser gardeners urged a more modest start.

 

I just couldn't make myself do it.

 

I decided to take all my licks at once and try almost everything from my old CSA box plus dozens of perennial vegetables I've never eaten and herbs I love.
Now we've got 20+ trays with 32 seed cubes each out on our porch and ramp with temporary barricades to prevent the chickens eating all our work.

“Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.”

Oscar Wilde 

Let's hope old buddy Oscar is right 'cause excess I've got.  

I'd like to be the hero of this story but I'm not.
The hero is Anjali who spent an hour twice a week for 8 weeks watering these trays and then 2 weeks "taking them out for a walk" every day to harden off. 

Thanks also to Angela and Megan for planting seeds and labeling trays when I felt too overwhelmed to start.