Spring 2012!

Today I felt that early Spring (late winter...?) rush of garden enthusiasm. This usually lasts a week or two, so I'll take advantage and start planning.
First of all, my to do list:

• prune and transplant raspberry canes (after last frost). Transplant to row along side of garage. Also, figure out a way to stake them. http://www.ehow.com/how_4969339_transplant-raspberry-plants.html
• transplant new strawberry shoots (to slope) http://strawberryplants.org/2010/05/transplanting-strawberries/
• transplant unusually large lilac bush in front of Maddie's window. Options: Backyard by compost heap,
• fertillize beds (early Spring) with Gaia all purpose
• order seeds
• clean slope
• replace dead cedars

And, as for veggies:

• kale (front yard, water more, along wall against house)
• lettuce (front yard, water more)
• tomatoes (former corn and bean patch, water carefully with cup of sun water- no hose!)
• peppers (jalepeno, thai red dragon, bell)
• onions and garlic (check regularly for cutworms!)
• corn (former back tomato bed, full patch, water more, fertilize more)
• dry beans (back slope)
• sugar pumpkin (back slope)
• potatoes (bags on back deck- water more and wait longer!)

Oh Seedlings

Patience is not my strong suit. But obsessiveness is, which is why every year, as soon as I pick that last piece of Christmas wrapping paper off the living room floor, I rub my hands together and get comfy on the couch with a cup of tea and a huge stack of gardening books. And every year I make way too many lists, buy way too many seeds and start them way too early. It's a disease! A really wonderful, fun and expensive disease!

I started two kinds of onions, broccoli and kale and they are quietly coming to life on a heat mat in my bathroom- a bathroom that I frantically shoo family members away from any time they are within a three meter radius of it's door. Poor family. Don't even get me started on Hugo, an enormous blonde whirlwind on paws. I may have to give him away for, oh, six months or so.

The heat mat's new. A splurge when I saw it on clearance for HALF PRICE at Buckerfields (da da dahhh!!!) Even then, $45 to keep seeds toasty seems a little excessive and coddling. I wondered, would I spend $45 to keep myself taosty on a heat mat, and the answer was no. But then, I don't personally supply the family with months and months worth of tasty and organic vegetables, so I reasoned that it was well worth it. John agreed, which is amazing given his rather Natzi like approach to heating bills (he's extremely un-Natzi like in every other possible way, so I let this one slide).

I have way too many questions this year! Like how do I prune my mystery raspberry canes and do I want more than 40 onions? I'm hoping that when I look back on this blog next spring I'll chuckle, shaking my head sympathetically at all the things I didn't know (old me) and how enlightened I am now (future me) and how far I've come in one year. That's the plan, anyway. We'll see how it goes!

Renaissance Women!

I am VERY excited about this new group and learning some pioneering "survival skills" from all my fellow eager earthies. Plus I have homework- this blog. Which I had planned to start as my own unpublished garden journal (because who wants to read someone else's garden journal. Except me- I would love that), but when Heather emailed with a blogging assignment, I thought Bingo! I'll follow the two birds/one stone adage, which has been around forever so must be good advice.

So, introducing my garden planning/Renaissance Women experiences blog. I'll try to make the two tie in as much as possible. For example: goat milking (Renaissance Women) as I ponder my weed problem (my own garden stuff). Just an example- we won't only be milking goats. Here's what we will be doing:

• making and distilling essential oils



• fermenting sodas/ kamboucha (soooo much better than it sounds!)



• making yogourt



• making sourdough starter and bread (Yay! This has never worked for me!)



• making soap (last time I made soap it involved melting a bar of Ivory, perfuming it with something bright blue and pouring it into a mould shaped like a mermaid. Booooo!)



• identifying wild mushrooms/plants, and EATING them (that's right)



• sewing from a pattern (OK, I know how to do this one. Nose to the sky, Angie.)



• milking a goat (while you garden)



• making cheese and enjoy with wine (this is officially and prematurely my favourite night of all)


• bee keeping (woo hoo!)

And possibly:

• building a cob oven (so I can then build my dream cob home)

• making paper



• killing a chicken (this one sounds slightly less cheery then the others, but I'm all over it)

I missed our first meeting, so off to a bit of a bad start :-/ But it was a planning meeting, no milking or slaughtering small animals- no fermenting things. Think I can catch up all right.

So, until February 20th...

The Great Comfrey Project

So Comfrey sounds pretty magical and I plan to grow a batch of it right next to my compost bin. Not only can I throw in a few handfuls now and then for a compost boost, but it makes a nutrient rich tea to spray on plants and the leaves make a great mulch. Plus, it looks pretty and anything pretty in our mud pit of a backyard is OK with me. Go Comfrey!

Some more than helpful garden blogs I've found:

1. http://www.chiotsrun.com/
2. http://www.modernvictorygarden.com/
3. http://www.urbanhomestead.org/
4. http://www.happysimpleliving.com/

Time to plan!

It's that time of year! I'll start with my official list of seeds:

Seeds left over from last year

• sugar pumpkin
• California Wonder peppers
• Genovese Basil
• Jalepeno
• Thai Dragon Peppers
• Cupid Tomato (2)
• Peron Tomato (4- vine)
• Cascadia Snap Peas
• Oriental Greens
• Beets

Seeds to Buy

• Calabrese Organic Broccoli
• Salad Bush Cucumbers (container)
• Redbor Kale
• West Coast Market Blend
• Copra storage onion
• Redwing storage onion
• Red Habanero pepper
• Chieftan red potatoes
• Bush tomato (Celebrity?)