Spring fever!

This winter is getting a little long. For some reason I don't remember feeling this way last winter....maybe it's due to the frigid temperatures and snow dumpings we've endured this season. Or maybe it's because we're anxious to get to a Twins game. Either way-it's getting on my nerves. I need to turn my mind to something green. We've decided to be ambitious and start a vegetable garden this spring/summer.

Jay has been fully warned that my thumb is no where near any shade of green-in fact he is probably a better gardener than me. But we are going to take a stab at it anyways. Both my Grandma and my Mom are fabulous gardeners and lovers of nature. How I turned out so differently, God only knows. I've done my research and decided that a raised-bed garden will be best for our yard. Last year when we transplanted my Grandma's peonies (which will be the extent of our "flower" garden), we found that we don't have the best quality soil for planting-we are still praying our peonies will pop back up.

Anyways, my vision is to build a 6 inch "platform" bed, surrounded by rocks to enclose it. That way we can bring in our own healthy soil and create a healthier home for our veggies! Lucky for us our development was not fully finished when we moved in, and there are hundreds of perfect sized rocks in the common area of our townhomes. Now if I can only get my darling husband to steal a few....;) I think it will make a great garden in our yard! Now we just have to figure out a location where the sun will hit it for at least 6 hours a day. I read a helpful article from Martha (of course!) that gave me the information we needed to start planning. The best advice I took from it was to start small, you can always expand. This applies to the size of the garden AND the number of vegetables you plant. Too big of gardens, and planting too many varieties can be overwhelming and create more room for error. This totally makes sense. She says to start with 3-4 varieties of vegetables until your garden gets established and then add more. There are certain kinds that do better in cooler weather and are easier to produce than others. We've decided we want to try tomatoes, lettuce, green beans, peppers and spinach. Yes, I know there are 5 items on our list, but I cut that down from 8! And I'm sure one or two is bound to not grow under my hands :) We are also going to plant asparagus. I'm not counting this one because they tend to be harder to grow, and take up to 2 years to yield results. So we are starting them because it takes a while for them to establish-they'll get a whole section of their own in the corner of our garden. This little garden planning session is just what I needed to kick my winter cabin-fever. I'm excited to see where it takes us! I really hope God gives me the patience (yes only me, because Jay's got plenty of it!) to raise a garden, and the ability to manage it. I think it will have lasting benefits once we start to be able to produce our own vegetables and eat our crop. Usually in the summers we only buy from the farmers market, so it will become a little farmers market of our own! (pictures from martha)