This is where our garden currently stands:
Yep, the beginnings of this year's garden are currently housed in the dining room. Under the light, are our early seedlings that I talked about last week (cabbage, spinach, celery, and onions).
The tray on top of the plant light contains the seeds I planted this week--four kinds of peppers, broccoli, and cauliflower. I've no idea why, but I'm nervous about the broccoli and cauliflower--they're new additions to our gardening efforts and I just have this awful feeling that we'll fail. (If anyone has any tips for success, I'd love to hear them.) As for the peppers, I started cayenne, green peppers, serrano tampiquenos, and jalapenos. Lots of jalapenos--as many of them as all the other peppers combined. We love them fresh, but I need a lot for making/canning salsa and for chopping/freezing to use throughout the year in spaghetti sauce and chili and the like.
On top of that seed tray, I've got my seed packets, to-be-planted as well as already planted. Included in the to-be-planted pile are loads of tomatoes, which I really need to get going. But first I want to buy another one of these planting trays. My gardening journal sits atop there too. Though calling it a gardening journal seems a bit overly generous. :P It is not one of those gardening journals with beautiful sketches and even more beautiful descriptions. Nope, mine is purely utilitarian (aka ugly). Just recording the facts--planting dates, successes, failures, ideas to try, blah blah blah. Here is my decidedly unprofessional sketch of my dreams for this year's garden:
See, not beautiful. But useful. Though we've already made some revisions. As in the shed we desperately need to buy won't be going there after all, but more likely behind the house. (Our garden is in the side yard.)
So as you can see, still not a lot of physical gardening going on here...but there is a lot of mental gardening afoot. :)
10 comments:
I was always too lazy (and no room) for seed trays so always had a garden from plants already begun at nursery's. Back then they were not real expensive and I never had a "huge" garden anyway but it did good and I always kept the neighbors in cucumbers! lol
Utilitarian things can be beautiful! I've never thought about having a gardening journal, but that makes sense. So we know what works and what doesn't! This is my first year gardening and I'm nervous about everything, too. But you're one of my inspirations for doing this, because I'm so jealous of your garden every year :)
Pat,
Guess what I just found out--Blogger's been sending your comments to spam! Jerks! Hopefully now taken care of. Isn't it nice when you have so much that you get to share? :) I'm going to plant a couple of zucchini this year---I have a feeling if I don't keep an eye on him he'll "share" every last one of them that we get. :P
Lu,
Totally agree about the utilitarian...just not the case with my journal. :P You know, it's sort of funny--we've gardened for what seems like forever (even back twenty-odd years ago we always seemed to awesome landlords who let us garden), but it was always just "what we did," never anything we got overly excited about. With blogging it all of a sudden became super fun a few years back. :D
I think your sketches are beautiful! Look at the cute little plants! I'm reading a book about keeping a nature field notebook w lots of sketching & trying to get over my complex about not being able to draw. I'd be thrilled for my garden plans to look like yours! Of course, I know nothing about gardening, so I just stand in awe of you. Baby plants! That are alive!
Mental gardening ... I love it! It's also about the only kind I do. The deer are too formidable a foe when it comes to gardens.
I love your beginning plants! I've never gotten around to doing seedlings, mostly because my cats would eat them as soon as I left the room. Some day I will have room for a little greenhouse....meanwhile, yours are lovely, and it's exciting to dream of where to put them when it's time to garden, too :-) Love this post, Debi!
I absolutely LOVE your gardening plans!!! I think it's anything but plain and boring!! I wish I could keep a gardening journal, I'm just not organized enough to do so :p I love your seed trays too!!! I really wanted to do my own seed trays this year but just couldn't justify it as I can't plant that much. When I get my own house I shall indeed though :)
Eva,
LOL--NOTHING to stand in awe of, believe me! We are seriously pretty much wing-it-and-hope-for-the-best type of gardeners. Though the internet does come in handy when something's just not going right. :P
Jean,
I'm a bit concerned about deer this year. They're fairly regular visitors to our yard, but last summer they never once bothered the garden. But with the subdivision going up behind us, their home has been severely altered, and I'm worried what this means for our garden. *fingers crossed*
Susan,
LOL--you know I'm sort of surprised that our cats leave them alone. Especially the one who is generally plant obsessed, and is much of the reason we don't have houseplants.
Chris,
Ha! You give me far too much credit on the organizational front! Seriously.
I like your sketchbook and I don't think it's ugly at all. ;-)
Debi! Stop deflecting and just accept the compliment! I think it's even more impressive you can wing it & not have all your plants die. I have a black thumb & can't keep a house plant alive no matter how desperately I want to. I need a spider plant.
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