A few weeks ago my friend, Jen, sent this book to my son.

Seeds! Seeds! Seeds! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

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I've been a They Might Be Giants fan for a long time now. I first fell in love with them in high school. I'd sing along to "Bird House in Your Soul" and other songs from the "Flood" album when they were played on L.A.'s new wave station, KROQ. I bought a record or two (yes, a record, even though I had a sweet two-cassette ghetto blaster).

I have grown to love them even more since they started doing kids' songs, and specifically kids' science songs. So, I have to gush about Here Comes Science, an album that came out last fall.

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It’s no secret that I love trees. They make their own food, they can create microclimates, they are habitat and food source for many critters and they are pleasing to the eye. Trees can be jungle gyms to climb or provide shade to sit under and read a book.

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Plants, like animals, need water to live. How much water depends on the species of plant and its habitat. A desert plant will need less water than a jungle plant. That’s pretty obvious, but can any plant have too much water? What happens to a plant that gets too little water? Let’s find out.

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Even though I almost froze my hands off at the Easter egg hunt in the park this weekend, it appears that it is spring. That explains all the snow last week.

Despite my spring-cynicism, I am looking forward to gardening in the near future. We are sprucing up the place with new raised garden beds and I bought a net to keep the sparrows from eating my spinach seeds.

This year I want to include Anders, my 3-year-old, in the gardening. I'm letting him pick seeds for "his" section and I am planting lots of things I know both the boys will like.

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Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better. – Albert Einstein

I went to college in northern California at a little school called Humboldt State University. It was nestled in the redwoods between the Pacific Ocean and the coast range. It was wet and foggy (except in the summer and early fall when it had the best weather in the world). Mold grew on everything — trees, plants, rocks, shower curtains, slow-moving people. It was a great place to find rotting logs.

Let’s look deep today.

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This month my column in Montana Parent is about cutting your own Christmas tree (or holiday tree, winter solstice tree or whatever you prefer).

You can read the whole article here, but I'll give you a few highlights.

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