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How is it possible that I'm ALREADY thinking about spring gardening?
Winter just started, Spring is MONTHS away. AND I don't have any place left to put anything new anyway!
But QVC did a couple Roberta's Gardening Show hours, and that pricked my latent gardener's virus OMG they showed some GORGEOUS delphiniums! I don't know what I'm going to do when the weather REALLY starts to get warm....
I don't know what I'm going to do when the weather REALLY starts to get warm....
You're going to go out and start digging! Because digging is good for the soul. It is necessary to get out in the dirt and dig.
And....you know the weeds are already out there right now, getting a head start on things, making an evil, silent, unseen creep towards your garden beds.....
Years ago I used to get all these glossy flower catalogs, they usually come out in the middle of winter. I'd sit in front of the fireplace for hours and pouring over stacks of them, drooling over all the veggies and flowers and imagining what kind of Eden my place would look like by the middle of June....so many beautiful things spinning round my head and such a stack of beautiful color garden catalogs. They always seemed to arrive by the bunches right after Christmas.
~We're now a month past the winter solstice. Six weeks to go. After that--Katie bar the door, weeds take cover, get your shovel and boots and get ready to rumble!
It's been such a mild winter so far, it really has felt like spring is around the corner. But now they're calling for highs in the teens next week, for the first time this winter. Reality rears its ugly head!
A blanket of nearly 10 inches of snow fell last night, effectively cooling off that fever for me. I don't even want to see any of those catalogs for at least another 2 months or so but i know they will be filling the mail box soon.
Anyone know where I can order a giant box of stamina - the kind I had in my 30's or even 40's? During my working years, living in a big city I used to daydream about the sort of grand gardens I'd have once I retired and moved to a place with more land. Retired, got the land but can't find the energy to create those magnificent landscapes now.
Anyone know where I can order a giant box of stamina - the kind I had in my 30's or even 40's? During my working years, living in a big city I used to daydream about the sort of grand gardens I'd have once I retired and moved to a place with more land. Retired, got the land but can't find the energy to create those magnificent landscapes now.
I can relate. Physical challenges make gardening difficult. It is so depressing not to be able to garden that I can't even watch garden show, go on garden tours, etc. I'm putting my creative juices back into cooking and crafts and sewing but I do miss my dirt fix. A few pots on the front and back porches will have to do.
The Willamette Valley here in Oregon has been stuck in cold frost and fog for almost 2 weeks now, frost is ok it put stuff to sleep but just the same my finger nails are to clean..Its time to get out and prune and bother a weed or two but also
a bit early..I'll be ready for some nice weather when it gets here..
So enjoying the time inside....
I got some seed catalogs the beginning of January. They want you to have time to plan your garden well and spend some money on seeeeds! I love these catalogs. Their just regular books to me to read.
Guess I shouldn't mention the peaches falling off the tree right now? We may have year 'round gardening, but we also have year 'round weeds and bugs, too. But it's still really, really nice to not have to watch the garden die each year.
We've gone to raised bed gardens and they are wonderful. Mostly it's stacked concrete blocks and they are either two or three layers high. They are as deep as I can reach in to the middle from each side by ten or twelve feet long. There's three of them now along with all the fruit trees in the yard and it's lovely. He can run around with his lawn mower and my plants are safe. It's easy to weed, it's easy to pick beans, it's easy to concentrate on just the growing area and not have to take care of large areas. All the fertilizer (bunny berries) go where it's necessary and the raised bed gardens save on water use, too. We've been getting an amazing amount of produce from them, too. Currently, it's tomatoes, winter squash (well, it is wintertime), lettuce, beets, carrots, stevia and beans. The trees are dropping tangerines, oranges, avocados, lemons, grapefruit and peaches. All this on a tiny town sized lot but it came with the fruit trees, we didn't plant those so I suppose we shouldn't take credit for them.
Guess I shouldn't mention the peaches falling off the tree right now? We may have year 'round gardening, but we also have year 'round weeds and bugs, too. But it's still really, really nice to not have to watch the garden die each year.
We've gone to raised bed gardens and they are wonderful. Mostly it's stacked concrete blocks and they are either two or three layers high. They are as deep as I can reach in to the middle from each side by ten or twelve feet long. There's three of them now along with all the fruit trees in the yard and it's lovely. He can run around with his lawn mower and my plants are safe. It's easy to weed, it's easy to pick beans, it's easy to concentrate on just the growing area and not have to take care of large areas. All the fertilizer (bunny berries) go where it's necessary and the raised bed gardens save on water use, too. We've been getting an amazing amount of produce from them, too. Currently, it's tomatoes, winter squash (well, it is wintertime), lettuce, beets, carrots, stevia and beans. The trees are dropping tangerines, oranges, avocados, lemons, grapefruit and peaches. All this on a tiny town sized lot but it came with the fruit trees, we didn't plant those so I suppose we shouldn't take credit for them.
A few years ago I might have been very jealous of the year round part (and those peaches!) but as you put it, it does also mean fighting pests and weeds all the time as well. Now that I live much further south I have been cured of the "fever" in January. Mostly it is because we are closer to being year round in chores. I haven't even been able to finish the "fall" cleanup because things kept growing instead of fully going dormant and already dozens of signs of spring are popping up through the snow we just had. I do still feel the excitement as new seed packets suddenly appear in the stores and magazines are filled with pictures of spring. Your gardens sound like a real paradise, so I am still a wee bit jealous.
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OMG they showed some GORGEOUS delphiniums! I don't know what I'm going to do when the weather REALLY starts to get warm....
