And, how does your indoor garden grow?

The garden information in this weekend's papers talked about putting in the seeds and using somewhat scientific calculations rather than emotions to figure out the best times to plant the indoor pots.

It's best to estimate the safest time for placing the plants in the outdoor soil and then count backward from that time to determine when to sow the seeds in the indoor pots.

After the last two years of being over-anxious about getting something to grow during the winter months, I've calmed myself down a bit, and I'm loosely following the guidelines.

Cucumbers, cantaloupes and watermelons have yet to be planted this year. I'll probably even wait until almost April, and from what the garden expert says, that's probably a good idea. I've seen tangible proof of that in my past two years experience.

It comes in the form of a vine-like jungle that spreads and tangles and attaches itself to anything willing to accept its presence. It all looks really nice, and I've had cucumbers actually blossom and produce fruit while still in the greenhouse.

If I want the plants to grow somewhere other than the greenhouse, however, therein lies the problem.

I'm not very good at untangling necklaces. You know, the ones that sit in your jewelry box for years and somehow work themselves into impossible knots. You find them and, if you've got big, clumsy fingers like mine, you can spend hours and lots of cuss words untangling them.

There is a certain amount of satisfaction to go along with the perseverance, though. When you're all done, you've got a nice chain available for use until it gets stuffed back in the jewelry box to swim around with all your pins, necklaces, rings, diamonds (yeah, sure, I've got diamonds hidden away in my jewelry jungle) in the box.

Well, untangling melon and cuke vines presents a much bigger challenge than those metal necklaces. For one thing, necklaces don't die. Cukes and melons do after so much fondling.

I've been successful at untangling a few of my precious plants in the past couple of years, but I've also had to throw out several. So, I've learned my lesson about NOT planting them too early.

I have planted some of my garden, though, and it's doing rather well. Echinacea, lavender, sweet William, pansies and petunias are up and thriving. They'll probably move to the greenhouse soon.

Two kinds of tomatoes (cherries and beefsteaks) are doing well too. The plants are about 6 inches high now and the healthiest green I've ever seen on my tomato plants.

I figured planting the sweet peppers early would be a good idea too because peppers don't like to germinate for some reason. Even with the slick trick of planting them in potting soil, covering it with Saran wrap and setting it near the wood stove hasn't been too successful this year.

After three separate plantings, however, I have 18 plants of various heights rising out of the potting soil. The garden expert said to wait until April to do peppers, but I figure there's a trial-and-error time involved. Besides peppers don't go wandering like those melons.

With today and tomorrow scheduled to be wet-weather days, I'll probably plop some more seeds into some potting soil and hope for the best as I await the proper time to get good and excited about outdoor gardening.

The lady said we should be able to pick up the soil, squeeze it and have it crumble from our fist. Since I've only done some raking with no intention of even rototilling for some time, thoughts picking up some of my garden soil for test purposes will remain just thoughts.

After all, the winter's kitty litter dumps haven't exactly joined forces with the native soil just yet. So, I'll just assume things will remain pretty sticky for a few weeks and stick to my indoor gardening.

Happy Monday.