I'm Dreaming of a Green Spring

It's time.

I have a seed catalog, and seed from last year. I have garden boxes and the necessary tools. I even have last year's Early Girl tomato plant, still bearing fruit.

It's time to plan the garden.

Last year was our first year with a garden. We had a spring garden (planted in February) and a summer garden. The fall garden plans were abandoned due to my mom's illness and death. But the earth still turns and once again we are thinking of the spring garden.

We'll plant lettuce, we know, and get an earlier start on the tomatoes. The challenge I joined requires that we grow at least one new fruit or vegetable, from seed, and that we blog about the garden weekly. Can do. We actually grew most of last year's garden from seed, though not the tomatoes.

I don't want to invest in grow lights or any seed starting supplies, so we'll still probably buy some starts. Our new CSA actually sells them ~ organic starts.

We need compost. We'll have to buy it to amend the beds, and then get our butts in gear and build the compost pile that we only talked about last year. A lot of things didn't happen last year; my grandfather and my mother died. even now there are days where I can barely lift myself out of my grief.

Our boxes are based on the square foot gardening method. It worked well for most everything, though not root vegetables. The Early Girl grew to over 6 feet even though she is in only 6 inches of soil.

We learned a lot last year. Corn is too water intensive for what we got. The Early Girl produced far more abundantly than the heirloom tomato starts we put in, as did the Red Pear. We had lettuce well into June, and enjoyed it the most of anything we grew (well, Papa and T-Guy did love the tomatoes). Lettuce and tomatoes are good crops because they are expensive when purchased organically. Lettuce can be harvested continually. 3 squares of spinach is too much. Root crops, such as turnips, take a long time for what you get. Zucchinis don't really thrive when planted 4 to a square. Acorn squash will take over the entire yard.

We have time this long weekend. I think we'll prepare the beds and plan our squares, and then take a good close look at the weather forecast. Last January we had the worst freeze in more than 20 years. I'm looking to plant in early February again, unless it looks like we'll get really warm before then. My grandma will be here in February, and she will love to see the garden and talk to me all about what she grew over the years. I'm glad she's coming.

(And for those paying attention, I added the button to my blog. Wow, it is so much easier than it was in 2005 when I first started Sustainability in the Suburbs, my now-defunct blog. Just wow! I may go crazy if I have time.)