Waiting For Spring

Found some old pictures I took a couple years ago. It looks like we have a while to get to even this point. My seeds are ordered, along with a batch of strawberry plants, plants that I have no idea where to put. This is the scary part of January-March: Getting overly ambitious with upcoming projects. The strawberry plants shouldn't be a big deal, but hopefully I will not plan more than I have time for.

For example, one year I ripped all the sod out from the perimeter of our fence in our back yard, with the help of my wonderful husband, of course. This ended up being a LOT of flower "bed" space. Then what do you do with all that sod????? I actually turned it over and layered it with newspaper and ultimately covered it with mulch. I had read about doing something like that on garden web, and it sort of followed the principle of lasagna gardening. It worked but took longer than everyone said it would. I had my sod mounds in various places and it ultimately turned into very rich black dirt, but honestly it took a good two years to get to that point. This expanse of perimeter bed is too much to keep up with. It's hard to keep the grass out and keep a straight line, mostly because it's too much space and more than I have time for. To mulch it costs a fortune, and then I compounded the problem by planting purple coneflower and shasta daisies all over and it just looks sort of junked up by time you hit July. I've tried to pull some of it out, but my main enemy is TIME!!! I have too much going on in those beds! It will look really good for a few weeks out of the summer, but the rest of the year it's just pretty much a mess. I'll post pictures later in the summer so you can see what I mean. To keep this honest, I figure I better plan on showing you my successes and my failures!!!

Ordering Seeds

So this is the weekend where I am ordering seeds. This picture was taken a previous year. I use an old baby changing table which works perfectly in my sunny dining room. This year I'm changing up my seeds a bit, using more heirloom seeds to see if my tomatoes will be even more flavorful. I'll still get the salsa and roma tomatoes but will definitely throw in a couple more varieties. All the seed catalogs have a variety of lettuce where it's easier to pick large clumps, so I definitely want to try that variety. I'm going to have to replenish my "Mel's mix" in my beds, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my source of coarse grained vermiculite is still open. You never know with the crazy economy! Before it gets nice out, I hope to have the beds replenished. I also hope to be on top of things so I can get early season veggies planted so I can enjoy the fruits of my garden as early as possible!

I would also like to grow strawberries this year......and am trying to figure out where I could put them. I think I would like a mini raised bed. I've seen those circular terraced ones which would be really cool. I could have strawberries on one level and then maybe move some of my herbs and have them on another level. I have a picture in my mind, but unfortunately I don't have a rabbit solution for that type of bed. Hmmmmm.....There must be some way. I also am pretty sure we have skunks living behind us still. It's hard to believe we're in suburbia with all of this wildlife!!!

Happy planning to everyone!