Would you strap yourself into a capsule perched atop a ginormous rocket, filled with an untold amount of liquid gas that once ignited creates enough force to thrust you and the ship out of Earth’s atmosphere? Or put more simply, if given the chance, would you go to the Moon? My immediate answer is “Sign me up.” I think it would be amazing. Of course, that’s a quick answer without giving thought to the actual risks and everything else that would go into a trip to the Moon.

I will say, I held my breath as we watched the astronauts from the recent Artemis II mission return to Earth. The six minutes of radio silence with nothing on the TV but a “visualization” of them reentering the atmosphere was unnerving. I’m a child of the 80s. That means that my third-grade class was watching the launch of the shuttle Challenger live in class. And then it exploded. Of course, that flight was the one with a schoolteacher on board. The first time, I think, that a non-astronaut had been on a flight. I don’t remember a whole lot from that day, except that our teachers were quite upset and quickly moved us on to other subjects.

Even having seen the risks of space flight live on TV, I’ve always been intrigued by the Universe. I used to love books about the planets and what we’d slowly learned from the Voyager missions. At one point, if you’d asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have said quite confidently, “An aeronautical engineer.” I can barely imagine what it feels like to be weightless, to look through the window of your ship and see planet Earth. It has to feel a little surreal.

But I tell you what, if they ever need a horticulturalist to go on a space mission, maybe I’ll sign up. I mean, it was the botanist in The Martian that survived by growing potatoes on Mars. It would be sort of fun to be the first person to grow vegetables on the Moon, flowers on Mars, and fruit trees on whatever planets our explorations take us to.

But enough about space. I should probably focus on getting my garden here on Earth back into shape! This week loads of plants have arrived. So many, we can barely keep up with them! Check out some of the goodies below, and to get things before they go out of stock again check out our online store at shop.kerbysnursery.com. You can purchase online and they’ll be ready for you to pick up Kerbside, giving you more time in your garden. Or more time to dream about exploring the Universe, if you dare.