Monday, March 21, 2011

Spring is here

We had a beautiful weekend here . We threw a party for Guinness to celebrate his birthday and all the dogs played outside.



How cute are they?



The next day, the boys were helping me in the garden. I love it. They just keep me company everywhere I go.



I turned my soil over, cleaned up the debris and planted some seeds. My spinach has germinated already. Some lettuce and cilantro seem to be coming back from the fall. I directly sowed some green beans, sugar snap peas, radishes, and Swiss chard.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Spring 2011

I have already sowed spinach and swiss chard seeds from Burpee in my raised garden bed. Swiss chard was unsuccessful for me last year, so I hope to see something this year. Spinach is easy to grow and it was great in the freezer. I was able to put spinach in soups and pasta dishes throughout the fall. When you buy spinach in the supermarket, it's often full of dirt and you have to triple wash it. When I went to harvest my spinach from the garden, I left off the first 2" to compost and only picked the leaves. It made cleaning a cinch.

I seem to have lost my seeds from last year, so I ordered new seeds from Renee's Garden Seeds.
English Cucumbers
Pickling Cucumbers
Sugar Snap Peas
Heirloom Tomatoes

In a container, I started some yellow pear seeds in seed starting mix.

Like last year, I'm going to buy nursery started kale, celery, escarole, and parsley. Kale was so prolific and was great sautee and in soups. It's incredibly good for you too. The reason I buy nursery started parsley is because it does take weeks for it to grow and when I need it, it's not ready yet and then later in the summer I don't need it when it is ready.