It happens
every spring. We get a flash of warm
weather, then some dreary cold days and of course the “crud” hits the household
in one way or another—generally me. I,
of course, always recover but while I’m hacking my way back to the land of the
breathing my thoughts turn toward the warmth of summer and the beckoning garden
plot out back.
Oh, I’ve
already heard that siren’s call earlier in the year—like January 1, but I’ve
not really done anything about it. Now
as I cough and carry on I look over my budget for the coming year and feel
panic rising at the cost of groceries and animal feed. I know in my heart I’m probably over
estimating the cost of those items, but the sheer numbers of it is enough to
send me back to bed to pull the covers over my head.
So the
natural segue for me is to think about gardening. I have the area, I have seeds, or can buy
them, and I have the time. So why
not? Oh I could come up with a long
string of why nots. But the truth is the
only main one is laziness on my part. I’ve
always got an excuse as to why not to get started, but there is always a work
around that excuse too, if I’d just apply myself.
Acknowledging
this publically is one way I am hoping to push myself to have the garden on my
dreams this year. I’ve decided to use
Mind Your Pennies as a way to journal my path to what I hope will eventually
turn into a year round garden.
I invite you
to come along on that path and to blaze a trail of your own. Whether it’s an herb in a pot on a window
sill, or a full blown garden let’s see how we can work together to help feed
our families on a budget.
Along the
way I’ll list my excuses for not doing something, and how I dealt with
those. I’ll list reference materials,
websites and give some recommendations. Or at least that is my plan.
I would love
to have your input along the way.
So here goes.
EXCUSE #1: The
birds are living in my garden, so I can’t start now, it will have to wait. While it is a fact of life right now, it is
also merely an excuse. REALITY CHECK: We have other places we could safely
house the 18 geese each night IF we’d just do a little repair.
EXCUSE #2: Gary
is working overtime all weekend, so he can’t work on the other locations this
weekend. Sean and I are still recovering
from our annual bout with the crud. Whine!
REALITY CHECK: There are other things I can be doing to prepare for gardening
that do not necessarily require I be in the garden this weekend. In fact most of those other things can be done
sitting down and fairly still.
So enough
whining woman, get started! Did I
mention I often talk to myself?
So let’s
look at those things I can do sitting in the warmth of my home and in fact at
the computer while recovering from this stupid head cold. So pull up your
favorite cuppa and let’s get started.
PLANNING: Any good garden plan includes just that a
plan. So let’s start with that. Planning
the garden.
All good
plans start with a list. Great, I’m good
with lists, it’s the follow through I often have trouble with. So let’s go
there. Just exactly WHAT do I WANT to raise.
Well I want to raise it all of course.
But that is where I generally get in trouble. I over plan my garden area, and as a result
end up with an uncontrollable jungle I am afraid to go into for fear of not
seeing a snake until it is too late later in the summer. So much of what I
plant goes to waste. So I need to keep
my urges under a reasonable control this year.
I’ll start
out with my ideal garden list and then trim it down on paper to a realistic
list as I go over the next several posts.
So here’s
what I’d ideally like to grow this year:
FRUITS:
watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, grapes (two types), blueberries, various
other melons, gooseberries I love trying new fruits and veggies and Baker’sSeeds makes that all too easy.
VEGETABLES:
green beans, garden peas, purple hull peas, black eyed peas, corn, snow peas, potatoes
of various colors, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, turban squash, zucchini,
crookneck squash, a variety of summer and winter squashes, cucumbers of various
types, Jerusalem artichokes, artichokes,
asparagus, assorted beans, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, turnips,
rutabagas, beets, radishes, lettuces, okra of various types, salad greens, onions
of various types, spinach, rhubarb, tomatillos in various colors,
TOMATOES:
Roma/paste, yellow, white, green, red, pink, slicers, grape, and cherry of
various colors, lots and lots of tomatoes!
PEPPERS:
Bell of a variety of colors and sizes, jalapeno, chipotle, poblano
HERBS: sage,
oregano, marjoram, mints of various types, catnip, thyme, dill of a couple of
types, stevia, cilantro, parsley of various types, chamomile, chives of various
types,
EDIBLE
FLOWERS: Pansies, Nasturtiums, violas, roses, calendula, sunflowers (for seeds)
Whew! I’m already tired and I know I’ve missed some
of the things I THINK I MUST have.
REALITY
CHECK: I only have a certain amount of basic garden space. That is currently the following gardens (1 each)
24 x 24; 24 x 8; 24 x 4 (which currently have my grapevines in it) and 8 x
8. I do have a lot of planters around the gardens
edge inside the garden cage that herbs and similar items could go in. I also have areas outside the garden that I
could hang planters out of the reach of goose necks that could be used.
So my list
is made—ha, ha. Now how much of each
should be planted to meet our needs. We are a family of three, plus I want to
preserve foods for this coming winter and future needs, just in case I don’t
make it to year round gardening. Enough
of that negative thought Jan, you must be positive you can do this AND do year
round gardening (sorry had to take a time out to scold myself.).
So step #1
making the list, the subject of this post is sort of completed.
I’ll end this post here by encouraging you to
make your own ideal list and move on to step #2 where we’ll trim that list.
Jan who
knows her list is far bigger than her gardening space and capabilities in OK
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