Thinking Spring

Is it just me or are the post-holiday-will-winter-never-end blues getting to everyone right now? Maybe it was that warm snap last week, just got me in the mood for spring. Or maybe it's the fact that I am trapped in the house with a toddler and whiny, under-exercised dog. I can't wait until it's warm enough to go on walks again!

Anyways

Hoping that we can force spring to come early (haha), we decided to get our garden started this past weekend. We have a small indoor greenhouse, and Shane put some fluorescent lights in there to help our little plants grow. We only started the plum tree seeds that we got last year from North Dakota. I am so excited to get our gardens going this year, but even I have to admit it's too early to start veggie seeds. We have a decent sized vegetable garden, but there are so many more veggies we would grow if we had even more space. My mother-in-law, Michele, said we could till up some of her acre lot and have a garden over there this year. She only lives 4 or 5 miles away, so it shouldn't be too hard to head over and weed or anything. We haven't finalized what we are planting in each garden, but I think our list is getting pretty long. So far we plan to grow cucumbers, bell peppers, jalepeno peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, snow peas, green beans, snap peas, onions, garlic, cauliflower, broccoli, thyme, rosemary, elderberries, lavender, sage, basil, and oregano. Still debating on the pumpkin, it took over the entire garden last year and was in the way a lot, but it was a lot of fun to grow enough pumpkin for 2 dozen pies, plus Halloween!

I am looking forward to seeing our front flower gardens and our back shade garden come to life this year also. We were so lucky with both of those gardens, nearly all the plants were free from close friends and family who needed to split their plants. I really hope the new shade garden wintered well and can cover up some of the ugly in the back yard.

Hmm...I hope Joey likes getting dirty, I think we might be outside a lot taking care of all these gardens! Just 3 more months...