When winter besets and the hectic pace of the fall harvest is almost forgotten, it is time to look towards spring. The only things that gets me through the long cold winters of North Idaho are planning and grow lights… and hopefully there is a plan in place before putting anything under those grow lights! Planning is not only crucial to the success of your plants, the beauty of your garden, and conservation of your resources, but it is a chance to exercise creativity and infuse you with hope. Where do we begin?

New to gardening? Maybe you've tried but it died? No worries! Gardening is one of the most forgiving hobbies because no matter how many times you fail, there are more seeds to plant! Each season brings fresh opportunities to learn and improve your gardening skills. Little by little, season by season, and trial by error, our experiences and knowledge provide us with more successes and less failures.

When I think dirt, I think The Grapes of Wrath. It is the dry dusty lifeless matter in which things struggle to find the necessities of life, such as water, air, and nutrients. It compacts or just blows away. Soil, on the other hand, is dark and fluffy. It contains dead matter and living matter such as fungus, microbes, and maybe a lovely little earthworm. Not only is there moisture, air, and nutrients, but also threads of fungi that connect the root systems of plants, allowing them to communicate and transport nutrients.

Does the war on weeds seem like an endless battle - and one they are winning? Conventional gardening solutions may call in herbicides to help but the never ending march of weeds just keep coming. Maybe the fact that the seeds can stay dormant in the soil for decades or that just one weed can have thousands of seeds may contribute to the problem. What if the answer is not in killing every weed but understanding why they are there in the first place.