According to my calendar the First Day of Spring is a mere twenty four days off; that's only three and a half weeks. There are already signs that it is creeping in. For example, in my mailbox:
And from the roof, a welcome sound, Northern Flickers drumming. Since they do no damage but make this happy little sound, I don't mind. They don't even drill in our trees but I think they do nest. They're awfully hard to catch with the camera!
In the backyard yesterday, I plotted out in the snow where I'm going to put my garden this year, and it was approved by the big chief. In fact, he said I should bring it out a bit, so I did. Then, my neighbor stopped by today and said, "Wow, that's going to be nice and big!" So now all I have left to do is decide what to plant, order some seeds, till the ground, put up a fence, mark out the beds, haul in some soil, start the seeds, water and nurture them, gradually harden them off, plant them outside, water them, and watch them grow. Next thing you know, it's a table full of food. Piece o' cake!
Any recommendations of what we should plant? At the dinner table the other night we had two votes for corn and a vote for watermelon. We had no luck with watermelon last year, so I don't know about that. I really enjoyed the peas last year, and I'm definitely planning on some Honeybunch tomatoes. (I thought surely I posted about them from my garden last year but I didn't find anything good so you'll just have to go check out the Burpee page which doesn't do them justice.) I haven't ever started tomatoes from seed. It would be a lot cheaper and it seems like it can't be too hard; the last couple of years I've had tons of tomato volunteers. Anyone know?
I enjoyed this post on little cucumbers and I am going to consider them. We are moving the garden to a completely different spot this year so I hope I'll have better luck with cucumbers than I have in the past. Actually I have already started gardening, just a simple little step: seed checking. It's only been three days, though, so I don't know how they're doing. I assume and hope lots of them will be viable. I bought more seeds last year than I needed, and it would be nice to not have to toss them out and buy more!
I hope you are getting happy things in the mail like I am; bye-bye February!
My friend and I had lunch today to plan our garden. We do a community garden together as our yards have too much shade.
ReplyDeleteWe are going to try Kale this year as something new.
I start our tomatoes every year. It is very easy- they grow very quickly. I start them under lights on a timer set for 15 hours. You could do them in a window also. I buy soil that is made for seed starting, it is loose and easier for germination.
If you like beans, Maxibel is a really nice variety. Sungold tomatoes is one our favs- you can pop them in your mouth right off the vine.
I better stop, I could go on and on about gardening :)
oooooo! This is inspiration to start my own little garden box! But this is coming from a woman who thought she was going to make pillow slip covers the night before giving birth to her son! Ha! Flickers are hard to catch and usually either you have to be dressed in camo or take the photo from a window. Dont forget to call the utility people to mark your yard before digging!
ReplyDeleteI cant believe spring is so near! I just blogged about it but didn't realize how close it really is.
ReplyDeleteI want to plant Tomatoes too! I have never done them before, but they sound like such fun. Looking forward to see what you end up planting.
Yikes! This means it's only 24 days until my baby's birthday -- I should come up with a plan!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you've got it all under control. Any beet fans at your house?
while my mail isn't nearly as fabulous as yours we had great success with tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, chinese eggplant, beans and bell peppers. This year i will be planting a ton more cherry tomatoes as the kiddos ate them faster than they ripened. have fun planning and planting - those catalogs look amazing.
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