The planting begins!

Yippee!!!

Thanks to the generosity of a very kind friend, we now have a lovely set of grow lights in our basement. This is a serious step up from my DIY seed starting center of previous years! I'll still be using that. But, now I can start twice as many seedlings indoor.

So, after sorting seed packets by variety and then planting/starting dates, ordering additional items and plotting it all out on the calendar, Michael and I managed to get the first seeds going over the weekend. (Pretty momentous since we had the stomach bug around these parts—ugh!) We started 3 kinds of basil, some herbs and some beneficial flowers. Next week will be tomatoes and peppers and the beat will go on and on from there. I love when we get to this time of year, when something (planting, preparing, harvesting) is on the calendar every week until late into next Fall. We'll be trying to push the envelop even more this year, with more food grown at home, and extended seasons on both ends. Pretty exciting stuff!

So, for this week's Independence Days Challenge update

Plant something – Planted basil, chamomile, verbena, vining petunias, violas and yarrow. Cut back the herb garden and fertilized the asparagus and strawberry beds.

Harvest something – Nibbled a few chard sprigs and some new kale leaves.

Preserve something – Soaked and dried another batch of crispy pecans.

Waste Not – Made seedling starting pots out of egg cartons and half-t.p. rolls with newspaper strip bottoms.

Want Not – Picked up three more small Corning ware dishes with lids at the thrift store. Perfect to replace plastic-ware for leftovers in the fridge.

Build Community Food Systems – Attended the first meeting of the organic garden team at work.

Eat the Food – Used the last rutebaga in our Irish Stew. Made fudge babies with dried dates, pecans and cocoa (a good food storage treat!)

Time to get out in the garden!

The garden has been beckoning me. It begins. I don't hesitate to grab my beat up jeans and a sweatshirt, throw on boots and head out to the garden every morning and evening. Sometimes there's time for a little weeding or putting in a few things (like a bunch of shasta daisy divides from a friend). Sometimes it's just about looking, seeing what is emerging, what needs doing. At this time of year, my days in a beige office, cube-land, facing a computer for long hours, are intolerable without these morning and evening forays into the green growing, living world.

Here are a few pictures of what I saw last evening and this morning.

The view of the big garden from our upstairs hall window.



A ground level view of the garlic coming up in one of the wedge beds in the big garden.



New canes in the raspberry beds and our first time growing potatoes in bags. They'll fill out as we top of the vines and eventually be brimming with red-skinned caribe potatoes. Yum!



Growing food not lawn in front of our house. We've put in asparagus and rhubarb in a border along the fence and four raised beds across the front of the house for a rotation of vegetables. These two are waiting for beans, tomatoes, peppers, basil and the like.



A look at our second year rhubarb with a few long leggy asparagus going to seed. Since we're only in year two for both of these crops, we can only "pick a few" to let the root systems have most of the energy.



Our raised strawberries overwintered really well and are showing off their new blooms.



Berries won't be far behind!



The golden peas are reaching for their trellises and the lettuce is beginning to show true leaves. There'll soon be fragrant blooms and lots of fresh spring greens here.



Our newest addition, four cranberry bushes in their own raised bed. They should be productive this year and add some lovely color in the fall.



One last look from the window before getting ready for work.



Thanks for stopping by the garden. Come again!