Preparing for Spring

Just as I type this, I’m hearing birds chirp loudly outside my kitchen window. That’s the first time I’ve heard that in months. Spring must be just around the corner.

It’s the first spring in awhile where Knut and I don’t feel quite ready for it. This may surprise you with all the madness we’ve had this winter, but we’re having too much fun in winter to have spring come just yet. Knut, especially, isn’t quite ready to give up the skiing season, and walk into the roller-skiing season.

As for me, I’m not geared up for gardening yet. Normally, I get all excited and start seeds, and am really good with the garden until about the end of June, or mid-July. Somewhere in there I loose steam, and things go downhill pretty fast.

I have ordered and received my seeds, but I haven’t started them yet. Hopefully it’s not too late. Our 3 season porch has been so warm in the afternoons with the sun just beating on it, and it would have been perfect for seed growth the last few days. Hopefully I haven’t missed any window.

Most of the seeds I start are for flowers, as on paper you can save so much money starting from seed, rather than buying plants every year. Last year my seeds did very very well, until about 2 weeks before I was ready to plant them, and I forgot them in a late frost, and they all died. Just like that. Weeks worth of work, gone in a night.

Although I’m not excited for it yet, I do have a plan because the reality is–gardening season will soon be here whether I like it or not. I need a survival plan. Last year I used dried grass clippings on a few rows of my vegi garden, and since they were dried, the grass seeds had died, and it actually worked quite well. Except the raking for hours and hours for a few days just to fill one row, and then not replenishing the grass when I needed to because it was during my “burned out from gardening” part of the summer.

This year, I’ve decided I’m going to spend the money, and get some sort of mulch to put inbetween the rows in the vegetable garden. What I liked so much about the dried grass last year was I could still work out there after a rain, even though it was so muddy–which really helped in not getting behind or slowed down with weeding because of the rain. It was awesome for weed control (that is, for the rows that got the mulch, for the time that the mulch was there.) If I can just get some help with the weed control, I’m hoping to push back my “burned out from gardening” date to as late as the middle to end of August. Baby steps.

My other plan is to really get the 2 older kids to help more this year. If I can institute a “15 minutes of nonstop weeding” rule/chore every morning, with the 3 of us, I think it would really help. Last year they weren’t so keen on weeding, but they were both great help when it came to harvesting peas and green beans. If we can as a family, work for 15 minutes every morning, and then I work out there a bit while the kids are playing, combined with adding a mulch (I’m leaning towards hay/straw) I might be able to gain control.

I also need to figure out how to keep the deer away from my strawberry patch. I’ve been trying to get a strawberry patch going, and nothing really spreads with deer eating it up every night. I’m wondering if some sort of cage over the patch would help. I still need to ask Knut his opinion on that. I ordered a “patch starter” of strawberry plants to be delivered this spring. It’s like 15 or 25 plants, and was at a great price through Park Seed. I’m determined to make it work this year.

Speaking of Park Seed, here are the seeds I ordered this year, as well as some of my lists:

Seeds for the flower garden:
Poppy (falling in love)
Marigold (moonstruck yellow…large yellow orbs)
Lisianthus (saphire pink and blue)
Geranium (Horizon Red Ice)
English Thyme
Chives
Coneflower (Echinacea bravado)
Aster Opus
Lisanthus (Cinderella Lime)
Lisanthus (Cinderella Pink)

Seeds for the vegi garden:
Tomato Park Razzleberry hybrid (came free with my order…so we’ll see)

Tomato Margherita Hybrid (don’t get any ideas! I believe this one was highly recommended for sauces and was determinate or indeterminate (the one where they should be able to be harvested at all the same time so that I’m not making tomato sauce all summer long, but in one or two weeks.) I wanted a roma tomato that they just developed that is great for sauces, and they developed it to have twice the lycopene in it…but it was already sold out.)

Organic Pepper Early Jalapeno (This is my first try with this. I thought with the number of peppers Knut eats we’d try to add this.)

Pepper (karma hybrid)

Pepper (gusto) (Really…I need to stop buying so many peppers for Knut’s south beach diet. These WILL work this year!)

Tomato (beefy boy) this one should provide us with eating tomatoes all summer long.

I also ordered a red tomato mulch that I’ve been reading so much about. It’s basically a bright red tarp that goes around the tomato plants. Not only is it great for weed control, but in testing, tomato plants respond to the color red–producing up to 30% more. Who knew? So you know I have to try it. As you can tell, if I do end up planting the razzelberry tomotoes that they sent along free…we may have tomatoes coming out our ears. I’ve yet to decide if I’m going to start that one, though.

Last year I was so pleased with the speghetti sauce that I definitely want a repeat of that, and I’m thinking about canning salsa this year for the first time.

Other than that, I’m praying that the cold hardy hydrangeas that we planted last spring have survived the winter, and I really really need to cut back the lilies and wildflowers (I don’t know what they’re called, but they’re pretty) that have taken over the small garden on the side of the house by the three season porch. There’s a gorgeous (snowball?) hydrangea back there that I know is aching to thrive, if it could just get some breathing room.

Knut and I didn’t really cut back as many of those things last fall as we should have, so our work this spring may be more intensive.

I’m thinking about getting some wood chips for the the front flower garden. Again, something I’m going to have to think on more. It has always just been exposed soil.

Whew! I’m already feeling busy and I’m just sitting inside, looking at the snow outside! Time to give myself a pep talk, I might also make a chart and give myself stickers and a prize for completing stuff. Hey…whatever it takes!