It's Vegetable Planting Time!

Several weeks ago, while the weather was still trying to decide if it was winter or spring, we had one of those‘fake out’ spring Saturdays before we dove back into winter. In that few hours of sunshine I decided it was time to pull up the remains of my winter garden, turn the soil, add some of the lovely compost we had been making since last summer – what felt like 5 zillion lbs. of kitchen scraps, flowers and yard waste composted down to a mere 36 cubic feet or so of compost – amazing how that happens – but the stuff is a bit like black gold – and then I had to let the whole thing sit…we were blessed with some nice rain and the compost really mixed in. Now it was time to add plants. Last Saturday was a glorious day and I was ready to get things going! I had purchased some starts from a man at the farmers market, yellow and orange bell peppers, bush beans, lemon cucumber and some peppers called 'Big Jim' that are supposed to be good for chili rellenos. Then I picked up a few more starts from our local co-op – yellow corn and three types of eggplant. I had my tomato starts – remember them – six varieties of heirloom tomatoes ranging from cherry , roma and slicers of various colors to some lovely green zebras. Lastly I had some seeds for crookneck and green summer squash as well as beets. Out to the garden I went. Well, I discovered the rain had caused some of the errant seeds from last year to sprout – yippee! So added to my list were some really great Russian heirloom tomatoes!

that I was kicking myself for not saving seeds from last year and some ( I think) traditional green cucumbers – of course they could be crook neck squash since the starts were all over the place and those ‘gourd like’ veggies are voracious, so they are my surprise vegetable! In fact there were so many stars I potted some up for friends and still had to pull a lot or that’s all I would be growing! I spent most of the day figuring out where things would go, planting both the bed from last year as well as a new raised bed we built along the side of the house. I planted basil in a tough like planter I salvaged from the trash heap, I squeezed a few more tomatoes into a bed my husband insists is good for tomatoes but only gets moderately enough sun. At the end of the day I was dirty, sweaty and tired but very happy. My garden is planted and before I know it we will be enjoying our garden’s bounty