Hello outdoor enthusiasts, experts, first-timers and dabblers. Spring has finally hit Montana – maybe – and many of us are ready to exit our warm, winter dens.
Last you heard from me, I promised grand winter adventures, with a potential “snow wheeling” tale when I returned. And I am here to report that none of that happened.
In the last three months, the only outdoor “adventures” I went on were leisurely walks with my boyfriend Cooper and our dogs around East Helena. (Not exactly column worthy.)
Snow fell, and I curled up on the couch under a blanket with a cup of cocoa to watch it happen. I daydreamt of snowshoeing, ice fishing or even just making a snow angel, and yet, I never moved from my cozy cove.
As the week’s passed, I received emails from the Monitor team. “Hi Eliza, should we expect an outdoors column this week?” I’d groan to myself as I read it, thinking, “Ugh… I really should do something outside,” and then I wouldn’t. (I sincerely apologize to Keith and Conor for dragging my feet, or rather, not even moving my feet.)
And then something incredible happened: the sun came out.
Early March featured 50 degree weather five days in a row, and despite living in Montana for 23 years, I fell for it. False spring lured me in, and then laughed an icy wind back in my face. I had just cleaned out the back of my Wrangler, only to refill the space with my paddleboard and fishing pole. I eagerly waited for an evening after work when I could hit the water – with my board not my body, it’s still way too cold for that – and soak up some sunshine. But I waited too long, and my paddleboard hasn’t seen a drop of H20.
I, on the other hand, did get to enjoy some of the sunshiny rays before they left. I even got a little bit of a sunburn!
On March 11, Jefferson High kicked off its spring sports season. Since then, I have spent my afternoons on the tennis courts teaching and coaching. It was at our first match of the season where I scored some color for my pasty, white skin. But I’ll leave the sports reporting to Dan Sturdevant and the rest of the Monitor crew.
So, if I haven’t been adventuring in the snow, and I haven’t spent a single second on my paddleboard, what could this column possibly be about?
Gardening.
First, I want to say, I by no means want to step on the toes of Brent Sarchet and his Monitor column “Gardens.” And I wouldn’t even have the skillset to do so by any means. (In other words, crosscheck any of my gardening advice with his.)
So far, my outdoor adventures have featured various forms of travel or exploration. However, outdoor adventures don’t solely exist in the mountains or in the middle of a lake. You can find open-air experiences right outside your front door.
And in this case, I mean rightoutside it. I’ve even brought a bit of the outdoors inside.
As some of you may know, I live in a small, Helena apartment that doesn’t have much (or any) yard space for gardening. However, I do have a small “patio” – if you call the sidewalk leading up to the front door a patio – and a similarly sized rock bed.
Surprisingly, this should be enough space for bushing onions, lettuce, super beef tomatoes, RC tomatoes, radishes, pickling cucumbers, salad slicer cucumbers, zucchini and strawberries.
Our gardening adventure started about two weeks ago when Cooper had the bright idea to haul his handmade, raised garden bed from his parents’ house in Winston to the apartment in Helena. The only issue was, Cooper had used a tractor to load the bed onto the trailer, and a tractor was not available in Helena.
It took another week and a half before the garden bed found its way to the rock bed with the help of Cooper and two of his friends, and me supervising.
Another week later, Cooper and I ventured into Lowe’s to further our garden plans. We walked out with four 16-inch round planters, five small flower pots, nine bags of potting soil, more seeds than I could count and a seed starter kit. (We may have been a little over zealous, but that’s what adventuring is for.)
Despite the outside air still sitting around 35 degrees, we immediately set to work on our garden, picking weeds out of the garden bed, filling pots with soil and planting seeds in the starter kit. Standing around the bed, tediously removing the unwanted plants was a literal breath of fresh air after sitting indoors all winter. It was the first time I had felt genuinely excited about something in far too long.
And I’m still way too excited!
Besides the outdoor garden pots, I decided to plant an indoor herb garden to bring some green inside. My indoor garden will feature rosemary, parsley, basil, lavender, mint, dill, chives, and lemon balm. (Again, I might have been a little over zealous.) And even though I just planted the seeds yesterday, I’m still checking every five minutes for tiny, green sprouts.
“So, how is this an outdoor adventure?” Well, I’m so glad you asked.
Experiencing nature shouldn’t always feature grandiose plans. Break the mental barrier. This spring, take an adventure in your own front yard. If growing food doesn’t interest you, plant flowers. If gardening in general doesn’t excite you, lay down in the yard and go cloud watching. Take a walk around your town (you could add geocaching to this adventure). Sit outside and read a book. Meditate. There’s a million ways we all can enjoy the outdoors this spring.
I can’t wait to see you outside.
