(Our Garden from April 2009)ell, its official...I have my first appointments scheduled in my new 2010 calendar. This past January I was able to attend several free gardening classes that gave me a wealth of information for when we began our
garden this past Spring. Today I checked the class schedule and there are a few new ones that are being offered so...I thought
"there's no time like the present" to get enrolled. Its amazing how you can do all this online enrollment stuff. This time Hubby is going to attend them with me. So I have signed us up for a couple of the previous classes I took
(it won't hurt to get a refresher) as well as a few new courses that are being offered.
I am so excited to begin our journey into gardening again this coming new year. I am also very excited because after much talk and planning, we are finally going to start raising chickens! I can't wait to have those feathered cuties out back and to be able to collect fresh yard eggs. There's nothing better in my books than going back to basics.
6 comments:
I remember watching your garden last April with envy. Here ~we can't even start planting until Mother's Day.
Do you start any of your own seeds? Mine didn't do as well as those I bought already growing from the nursery. It took up so much space in my kitchen too! I am still thinking on that!
Since this past Spring's garden was our first in our new home, we started with bedding plants from the nursery. However, we did have a few cucumber seeds that did well. After harvesting and working up my veggies, I saved a ton of seeds to use for this Spring's garden. In fact, I have been steadily counting the days down until time in January to start planting them and trying to get my own bedding plants to grow. So this will be our first year of trying to grow all from seed. I am hoping it works well for us, but if all else fails...we'll just take a trip to the nursery.
Gardening is so much fun and yes work, but it can also be VERY expensive, so by starting from seeds that we already have, I am hoping to cut the cost to bare minimal where ever I can.
~Mrs. M
I just love your gardening posts! And you had SUCH a beautiful bounty this last year!
I'm wondering - are you planning to add anything new? I didn't see any reference to asparagus in last year's garden. Are you fans? I know once you get that started, it will really reward you!
I also wondered about berry bushes - blackberry and such.
(Don't you just love how I'm thinking up work for you?!?!?!)
:-D
I love gardening and I wish we had free classes available at our extension office. I call them all the time for ideas or instructions for preserving food. They know me by name now!
I start many of my plants from seed. Depending on what plant, I have to start some in February, so they are ready for May planting. Hubby also made me a salad table. It used to be the frame for one of the kiddos beds. Now, in spring I can plant my lettuce and radishes and not have to worry about the rabbits eating them before I do. I have not had luck with tomatoes from seed. This past year I didn't have much luck with tomatoes period because we got the blight.
I love pulling the canned goods out for dinner. And if we get unexpected guests, I can stretch a meal by adding a pickeled something and jam and bread!
Cranky G ~
Yes, thank you so much for all the work you have conjured up for us...we had nar enough before. *grin*
Hubby likes asparagus but I am not a fan of it. However, it gets way too hot to grow it in our area, so we opt not to even bother.
We did plant blueberries last year...3 varieties that are good growers in our area of the state. However, since blueberries are a slow grower...we should have about 3 more years until full maturation.
We also planted a pear tree, a pomegranate tree and an olive tree. So once they start producing we will be happy campers. We had a fig tree that was just starting out but we had a really freak cold/snow snap that killed it last winter. So we are in the market another one.
We are looking to do more tomatoes, peppers, and some other things this year. So instead of having a really varied harvest, we are going more specific for a large canning yield.
We are also thinking of removing the herbs from the garden completely and planting them in a separate kitchen garden area. That way we will have more vegetable room without loosing any herbs.
Domestic ~
You are absolutely right. There is nothing that helps more in stretching a meal than a jar of canned or pickled "anything."
We are going to start our seeds in January as we normally warm up enough to be able to plant in March. So that is the goal. We're going to try our hand at using the saved seeds from this past harvest, so we shall see how that goes. I have some tricks that one of the seminars spoke of last January that I want to try. If it works for me then I will be happy to share it with everyone. It's supposed to be a good way to get your seeds off to a roaring start. We'll soon see.
Ha Ha! Ain't ya glad I'm right here to help in case you run out? HA HA HA!!
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