Spring has sprung, with bees busy in the blossoms, and the rest of us feeling the insatiable urge to spend every waking moment out of doors. Everything good and lovely is reawakening, and it makes me want to go out and plant!

“The very act of planting a seed in the earth has in it to me something beautiful. I always do it with a joy that is largely mixed with awe.”        ~Celia Thaxter, An Island Garden 1894

So what is a yearning green thumb to do? Early spring is the perfect time to plant cool weather vegetables: cabbages, radishes, green onions, spinach, lettuces, and potatoes. If you don’t have your own spot of ground to scratch around in, you can buy a really large pot and fill it with potting soil. Sow a variety of lettuce and spinach and herbs according to the package directions, and you will have a bevy of makings for your very own beautiful salads.

This is a great project to do with the kids. Let them help pick out the seeds and sow them. It is incredible what you can get them to eat if they help grow it!

Then, if a passing neighbor stops to talk about their own ambitious gardening plans, you can give them a benevolent smile and say, “Oh, yes, I have a lovely potager growing right now.” (Potager is a French word that just means a “garden in a pot,” but sounds so much prettier in French. It’s okay. If you planted one, you have the right to put on some airs.)

Beyond vegetables and herbs, what about my personal choice—flowers? You can’t go wrong with the easier-to-grow varieties. Some of my favorites are larkspur, bachelor’s buttons, alyssum, and hollyhocks. All of these can be planted straight into prepared ground. Seeds packets are much cheaper and more rewarding than buying a potted plant. For pennies each, you can grow rows of flowers and have an entire summer of colorful blooms to fill your vases. No more artificially colored, cellophane wrapped bundles for you! You could even wear a hat and dress when you go out to cut them and pretend you are in one of those great British shows. (I won’t tell!)

Zinnias are a perfect choice for kids to plant and harvest. They can pick as many as they want; it just encourages the plant to produce more. Zinnias are tolerant of bugs and burning hot summers and being held in a little one’s fists. This means that your kids can pick a bouquet to take to one of the elderly ladies at church. An easy and lovely way to keep them fresh is to cover the stem ends in a damp paper towel and follow that with a layer of cling wrap. Wind a ribbon up the stems to help conceal your handiwork, and wait to see how the recipient’s eyes light up. I have never been able to decide whose face shines brightest: the child who gives, or the person who receives.

And please, don’t turn up your nose at the little sacks of plants they have all over the gardening centers now. Yes, they look awful, like bags of dirt with some dry sticks and twigs, but trust me, they’re alive.

This is a package of red poppy roots I bought and planted in a Dollar Tree pot to get a jump on the season. (They made me think of Dorothy in Oz.) I’ll transplant them into the garden as the weather warms.

Here is a clematis vine from a bag. I planted it a month ago and it is already 2 1/2 feet tall! I’m kind of addicted to clematis. They climb upwards with nothing but their little feet in the ground, and so they fit into the tiniest patch of dirt. From there, they spread aerially in glorious abandon until they burst into a shower of blooms. I have more than a dozen varieties, and every year I try to find space to tuck in one more.

It doesn’t matter whether you have a luxurious spread of land or just a sunny doorway.  If your hands are itching to get in the dirt and spread some of spring’s beauty—go plant!