The seed catalogues are out, and our saved and leftover seeds are on the dining table. It’s time to start planting! From what I can tell, with a brief look back in time, we are going to get an earlier start this year than last, which is a big plus. Last year we had a tough start with our outdoor plantings (ridiculous amounts of rain, colder than average temperatures, and a bounty of slugs which ravaged everything). I got a late start on our indoor plant starts, which means we still have hot peppers blooming (and fruiting!) in the house; and some of our heat lovers, like tomatoes, barely made it to full ripeness in time. This year I plan to flip that equation, and get an earlier start indoors with more seeds, and be more prepared outdoors with floating row covers and some more extensive slug prevention methods. We have some ideas on that, which I will share more about soon.
The garden has quite a lot of food in it at the moment. A bounty of kale, a bed full of carrots, a wild spread of arugula, a small patch of spinach, and a number of other odds and ends. It has been left to it’s devices for the duration of the winter, and has taken care of itself. These plants love cooler temperatures and don’t require a lot of care, as long as they have adequate water (of which there has been plenty).
We are starting to ramp up our consumption of greens about now, as we will want to ready those beds for new plantings soon. Interestingly enough, this time of year tends to perfectly align with when I begin to really crave greens.
A few goals for this early season time:
– Clean up the empty beds.
– Order a truckload of compost.
– Create at least one new planting bed, to increase our gardening area. This is easier said than done, because as you can see – we have company that doesn’t mind eating anything and everything available to them.
– Finish our existing garden fence with trim and a gate.
Recently, Ginny presented the idea of keeping a garden journal on her blog this year. This idea really appeals to me and I look forward to seeing what she’s up to. I have been sharing our gardening endeavors here in the past, but this year I will try for a more deliberate approach. I like the idea of choosing a day to organize my thoughts each week, and look back on our garden’s progress. So I begin today! I will try to post each Friday, or maybe every other Friday.
Amber
I love the idea of bloging the garden’s progress. It will be a delight to read and a motivator in my own garden journal. Last year I wrote down what and when I planted, on scraps of paper, it is with the rest of seeds that didn’t get planted. This year I think I would like to keep better track too. It will be so great to look back and see, rather than scraps of paper with dirt smudges. I am going to add a few new boxes in my yard, we have a new place for garden space, it has great sun too. Oh I am excited about getting the garden going. I just ordered from Wild Garden Seed…thank you for the reference.
Amber