I’m a rule follower, envious of those who can fly by the seat of their pants. But more often than not, I let my fear of failure consume me in the form of overthinking and overanalyzing to the point that I will give up before even starting.

But I put gardening in writing for accountability and whether it comes with success or failure, I’m following up to say I got started. This weekend, my husband tilled our garden space with a borrowed tiller. I drew the garden plans, and participated in seed-swapping with a friend. I then put starting seeds on the to-do list this week.

By starting some seeds indoors, I thought i would show my son some responsibility and teach him the basics of science. We each even made our own hypothesis, and I’m excited to see the seeds’ progress and the outcomes. My hope is that the seeds will survive me and make it to be transplanted outside in the coming weeks.

Once my son got home from school, I gathered our supplies (seed packs, trays, dampened soil, popsicle sticks – for labeling, a cookie sheet – for containing the mess, and a notebook and pen for recording the date, what was planted and our observations), and set up everything at our kitchen table. Using a quarter cup measuring cup, my son scooped the soil into the trays, then took a pencil to make a hole to drop the seeds into in each square. Next, I labeled popsicle sticks and placed one in the beginning of each row. Together, we began placing the seeds in the holes in the soil and covering until we were done. Then, we used a spray bottle of water and sprayed the soil to be sure it was moist enough.

I’m so glad to have this opportunity with my son to talk, to learn, and to show him that we are learning by trying new things. Most importantly, I’m glad to be showing myself that I can try new things – and that even if our seeds aren’t fruitful, we had quality time together.