All it takes is a few little seeds, some soil, sun and water and there you go, a garden. Sometimes I’m amazed by the fact that we have jars full of zinnias, black-eyed susans and, er, these cute little purple guys in our house—and that they grew from such little effort. Livia and I planted seeds last spring and watched our baby plants grow. We transplanted them into the beds Jeremy constructed and we’ve all been surprised by the tenacity of the seedlings. Two “Sweets,” William and Peas to be exact, are now thriving despite looking like they were already dead two days after the transplant. The cosmos are growing though we have yet to see flowers, and our sunflowers? Well, apparently bunnies (DEAD bunnies if we see them again) like sunflowers, too. And these are just our seedlings. Jeremy’s done an amazing job with moving perennials around and planting new varieties of annuals in the midst of the plants from previous years.

Gardening is better, not to mention cheaper, than therapy. By simply walking out to our compost pile and taking notice of the height of our fountain grass or the new leaves on the redbud, my pulse slows and breaths deepen. Something about the wind and flowers and sunshine soothes the soul.