Spring, gardening and sunflower project (great for kids!)

Spring and the garden beckon. Here's our planting efforts so far: one green bean and a happy patch of grass (no, not that kind of grass!!) So, it's time to roll up our sleeves, dirty our knees and get outside.

• This time of year, weeding and composting are what's called for outdoors. But hey -- after the long winter, even weeding sounds fun, right?
• Remember that many seeds need warm soil to germinate, so create an indoor greenhouse in a reused cinnamon roll package like I did last year. It worked like a charm!
• Bemoaning your lack of gardening space? Gardener's Supply Company is advertising 'grow bags' made from polypropylene that look mighty similar to the reusable grocery bags that many stores sell for 99 cents. I'm not sure if they're really the same thing, and I doubt they'll win any awards for prettiest container plants on the block -- but hey. Worth a try if you've got an extra bag or two on hand, and want to give this 'grow bag' concept a go on the cheap.
• Got any junior biologists? Enlist their help in the Great Sunflower Project. Pretty much all you need to do is grow a 'Lemon Queen' sunflower (it has to be this variety), and record the number of bees it attracts during 15-minute periods during your growing season. Your junior scientist (or even you!) just needs to register on the web site, and enter your data there. The project, run by San Francisco State University biologists, aims to better document bee populations in urban, suburban and rural area. You are not required to dress up like a sunflower, and no, that is not a 'Lemon Queen' but that is my junior scientist, who is now 8, will be ALL OVER this bee-counting project. Note to self: add 'Lemon Queen' seeds to shopping list!
• OK, this one doesn't have anything to do with gardening but I just have to recommend this fantastic book: Crude World, by Peter Maass. I'll write about it more once I've finished it. But let me just warn you that I have not been this passionate about a non-fiction book since that one about human waste!

Our kids are going to be out of school on spring break all next week, so Heather and I are going to take some vacation time from EnviroMom, get our hands dirty in our gardens and hopefully find a little bit of time to read. We'll be back on March 29.