Saturday, April 6, 2013

the gardening bug...

The return of Saturday Farmers' Market. *smiles hugely* Yep, Chris is now nurturing what Heather originally sowed. And because I love both Chris and Heather dearly, I wanted to participate. But I don't have much to share. The farmers' markets in these here parts won't open for nearly two months yet. Our garden is not yet sown...and won't be for a while. Luckily we're still eating lots of things preserved from previous years. In fact, I think this may be the very first time I managed to can enough tomatoes to make it through the entire year. :) And we've still got canned green beans and lots of salsa and jam and apple butter and just a bit of applesauce and frozen blueberries and strawberries and kohlrabi...

Ahhh, but as wonderful as it is to still be enjoying previous years' bounties, it is that time of year when one starts itching to get their hands in the dirt, isn't it? This will be our second summer in this house. Rich managed to get a decent-sized garden put in last year and we planted some blackberry bushes, but we're hoping to expand this year with another garden of the same size and also add a small strawberry patch. We also have a couple blueberry bushes, a couple of apple trees, and an almond tree to plant this year. And Rich would like to have a hops trellis so he can grow his own hops for his home-brewing. Oh, and a pumpkin patch. That might all be more than we can reasonably accomplish this year...if so we'll adjust.

We're going to try to grow some things in the garden that we've never tried before...broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, celery. *fingers crossed*

I do have our earliest seedlings going:


Cabbage (which I think I started too soon), spinach, celery (time to thin it again), and onions.

And in the next week or two I'll be starting many of our other seeds (tomatoes, jalapenos, etc.)...

So I guess dreams of summer harvest really aren't all that far off after all, are they? :)

6 comments:

Ali said...

I'm hoping you guys will inspire my garden as much as you inspire my bookshelves. Our plans to build raised beds and plant veggies need to kick into gear, or they'll be ready just in time for a fall planting. I am such a procrastinator!!

DesLily said...

oh how I miss the years when I was younger and had a garden!!! yes, they are a lot of work, both tending them and then "putting up" much of what you get from the garden... but oh I did love it! I hope you love it as much!

chrisa511 said...

Oh this post has me so excited :D I can't wait to see your garden week by week as it comes alive :D And this is the perfect post to show that you don't have to have a full fledged garden growing to still participate in Saturday Farmer's Market...I hope more people do!! Love love love seeing what you're doing :D I have to admit that that's the reason I really wanted to bring this meme back :p To spy on everyone else's stuff :p

Heather said...

WHAT????? This is SO MUCH to share!!! I LOVE IT! I wish I was set up to start my own seeds. I WILL be, someday. Probably after we move. Whenever that is.

Leslie @ This is the Refrain said...

Your seedlings are lovely! We moved ours outside today, since it's technically pretty late here (but it's been so dang cold!) and it looks like we're pretty safe from frost. We're keeping a close eye on it though. Seeing all our pots out on the balcony made it feel like we might actually be successful this year! Even if I might have accidentally killed our monster squash in the transplant. He's a monster, though, so I think he might make it. Ah! I'm definitely going to have to participate in this meme.

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

I was really excited when I saw this return as well! We made some raised planters either last summer or the summer before but never could find a place in the backyard where we were satisfied with the sun (we are western facing with two HUGE oak trees that block most of the sun, which is normally awesome except...). BUT! This past week we put one of the planters to use and we now have half a dozen little tomato plants. I figure it's all I'll be able to manage in my ginormous state this summer but I'm so excited. After I saw how easy it was to can jam last year (which we are still LOVING) I can't wait to try my hand at canning tomatoes since it's the canned item I use the most.

I can't wait to see how your garden progresses!!