Green Itch

It's spring here in Sweden and I think we've finally had a week without a frosty night which means that it's just about time to get planting. I've been developing an unquenchable itch to get my hands in the dirt and do some growing. It's been a year since I've planted anything and I'm experiencing a severe withdrawal from my #1 hobby. I harvested the last of my Hawaiian garden last May and didn't plant any more because I knew I'd be gone for the summer. During the summer I was obviously traveling and didn't have the opportunity to plant and well, then came the fall and the winter. Now it's spring and if I don't plant something soon, I think my green itch will manifest itself on my body as a psychological longing rash...or something.

Johannes and I will be moving into our apartment on the first of May and that's just about when things should be planted. I wish I could do some indoor germination right now and have the seedlings ready for when we move in, but that's just not possible right now, as we're living half and half around town between people and it'll be difficult enough to gather all of our belongings without the additional hard-to-transport seedlings and containers of soil.

I have a bag of biodynamic potatoes that have started sprouting and those will hit the soil the minute  we move it. I'll see to it that they rest in the soil before I lay down for the first time in our new home. I've been reading gardening books and browsing through seed catalogues all morning and daydreaming about the balcony that I hope to transform into a green urban paradise. Ahh! I think today I'll head to our new neighborhood (one of Stockholm's ghettos) and explore the possibilities for guerilla gardening. I will attack the sidewalks with sunflowers, herbs and food plants if I can. Why not take the opportunity to transform a sad, higher-crime neighborhood and make something beautiful out of it. Invite the neighbors for garden parties, share the food of our harvests, get a real community together and be the change that the ghetto needs.