Time to Grow

Growing Season has to be around the corner. It just has to be. The temps and the weather indicate otherwise. But for my 42 years, Spring always has followed Winter. Always. Sometimes it is abbreviated and Summer takes over pretty quickly. Not sure what is up with it this year. Each Winter we flirt with the idea of starting our veggies and herbs but we have yet to take that initiative. So along comes Spring (presumably) and we are kicking ourselves again for not starting our plants in the Winter. Quite the little dance. Last Spring we decided to do Square Foot Gardening. We have the space, but our soil is crap. And we were tired of dumping so much time and money into a garden that was hit or miss. So we made our boxes and mixed approximately 2 tons of peat/vermiculite/compost. We were filthy and it felt goooood. We were so confident in our new soil so we planted tomatoes, cucumbers, sugar snaps, string beans, lima beans, broccoli, cabbage, eggplant, peppers, corn, potatoes, onions, carrots, radishes, butternut squash, zucchini, yellow squash, cilantro, parsley, chives, dill, basil, rosemary, and nasturtiums. It took off like wildfire! Our garden was finally something to be proud of :-) All this waiting this year--waiting to just prep it--is driving us a little crazy. Our mouths are watering over the idea of fresh salsa and bruchetta, butternut risotto, grilled squash & onions.....we decided to finally plant garlic last fall(after years of saying "we should") and they are poking up now, so that is hopeful! The chives have me concerned, though. Usually they start growing the first warm day of the year. But this year, nothing. If chives are my indicator of Spring, it is still a LONG way away. A few changes this year. After several years, I have convinced Crow (my husband) that the corn takes up too much space and doesn't yield more than one meal. So the corn is out. We will buy that from the Professional Farmers at Farmers Market :-) And even after the Square Foot Miracle Mix, my carrots are still not worth the space given to them. So they are out. That leaves room for more successful veggies. Last year was the first year we planted potatoes and they did great! We had a potato contest---whose box grew the most. Winner got bragging rights. It was a tie :-) We are thinking of canning. Just thinking about it. It could take a few more years before the thought becomes a reality. Truthfully, the idea scares me. But I may warm up to it. There is a lot to learn from a Garden. A whole heck of a lot.