April 3 was seed-planting day at the Q! Yup, we have a garden AND we start our seeds ourselves. We love the magic of taking a brown spec that fits on the head of a pin and then turning it into a vegetable that we can eat and share.

This is our third year with the garden, and this year we are getting help from our pal Catherine Delphia, who is an amazing master gardener. She’s helping to point the way, but we Blue Q folks are the ones doing the growing.

So that means that on Thursday morning, our group included mostly folks from our Berkshire County ARC (Association for Retarded Citizens) team. Plus Caity, who showed up in her mud boots. This woman meant business!

First up was mixing the soil for our “brownies” – which are basically little squares of dirt that each get a seed. Caity loaded up a tray with the soil and peat moss, and then we all dove in and mixed that bad-boy up. We were basically making mud pies. We were mixing machines.

Next, we stamped the mud into the “brownies,” and the team rocked it, turning a mess of mud into hundreds of perfect brownies, ready for our seeds.

Here’s what we planted this week:

• Spinach: Tina took off her purple fleece, rolled up her sleeves, and planted 15 perfect little black spinach seeds into their little mud pies.
• Swiss Chard: Chrissy was super-psyched, exclaiming “Yessss!” and giving a fist-pump after she deposited each little knobby seed in its nest.
• Kale: Jenna has the best fingernail art at the Q, but she didn’t let that stop her from planting 15 seeds for Red Russian Kale.
• Peas: Meaghan sported the best shoes for gardening: some awesome little princess pink sneakers. Love them. She planted two varieties of peas: Snap Peas and Snow Peas.
• Beets: Julia’s a master gardener, with tons of experience. She handles seedlings like a virtuoso handling her Stradivarius. She planted three varieties of beets: red, golden, and striped.
• Artichoke: Chrystal’s got that special touch with seeds too. She’s blind and has super dexterity to get each and every little seed to its perfect home. She loves artichokes. And heavy metal music.
• Dinosaur Kale: Liz planted the best-sounding seeds of the bunch, each teeny prehistoric seed winding its way to the center of 15 perfect brownies.
• Cilantro: Susan was cranking out a bunch of gum innerpacks but stopped working long enough to do some gardening. She powered through planting her cilantro seeds while I dreamed of fresh salsa.
• Nasturtium: Karen, decked out in lavender ‘cause she’s ready for spring, was excited to plant nasturtium, which her mom used to grow. You gotta love an edible flower.
• Asparagus Peas: Maybe weirdest seed of the day. Caity explained that these will grow into a gorgeous vine that sometimes grows pods that kinda taste like asparagus. It seems fitting that Casey – who’s really tall – was the master of these cool plants. I can’t wait to see Casey hanging out among his 10-foot long asparagus pea plants!

And so with every seed nestled in its new home, we took our little flats of beautiful brownies to the light shelves and tucked them away for a week or two of germination. Can’t wait to see when these little babies sprout … and to have some fresh kale from our garden!

Just another morning at Blue Q.