Sunday, February 19, 2012

Spring is in the Air


This has been an interesting winter.  The skis have been ready for use, but have seen no snow.  I fear for all of our bulbs that we planted last fall....over 100 of them!  Hopefully they are not rotting in the warmer than normal ground right now.

Last week we received part of our shipments of seeds from Seed Savers Exchange, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, and Burpee.  A few seeds are on backorder.  We also have a some plants, onion bulbs, and potatoes yet to come.



We have a lot of work to do soon to prepare for spring!  Thankfully this year we will have more time to devote to our increasing garden.

Again this year, we'll be taking picture and uploading to Flickr.  The site is:

New plants for 2012:
  • Hops (for Wes’ new hobby)
  • Several new varieties of winter squash (my all-time favorite veggie!)
  • Sweet Corn (we only did popping corn last year)
  • Artichokes (never seen them grown around here, so we’ll see what happens)
  • Blueberries (a smaller variety that isn’t so picky with its soil)
  • Nasturtium (edible flowers)
  • Soybeans (the edamame type)
  • Honeydew (we grew watermelon and cantaloupe last year and are expanding or melon varieties this year)
  • Vine Peach (an odd type of vining fruit that tastes like a peach and is in the melon family).
  • Okra (not my favorite veggie, but Wes wants some)
  • Potatoes (the small, fingerling type.  Great for sautéing or cooking over a fire)
  • And, a few random new varieties of plants we've grown before.


Projects for 2012:
  • Another section of grass to be ripped out (hopefully our last area)
  • Install the electrics in the green house (when the temps get too warm, vents up top will open and a fan will kick on)
  • Paint the pillars on our front porch (we bought the paint last year, just never got around to using it)
  • Move the prairie plants to make more room for sprawling veggies (if any actually survived...they weren't looking so good at the end of last year)
  • Create a natural arbor (we tried unsuccessfully last year…damn rabbits!)