Dreaming of my Summer Garden

Today I've been thinking about our garden. Last year we didn't plant one because Carter was born the week we would have needed to plant and I can tell you having had major surgery I wasn't going anywhere near the garden.

This year I'm really excited. Our neighbor breeds rabbits and he's been letting us use the rabbit poo on our garden. We also planted oats and peas which are supposed to be good ground cover and add nitrogen to the soil. The oats and field peas came up only in patches, but about a week before we're ready to do our final till, we just mow it all down and plow it all under. This year I'm also committed to only growing heirloom vegetables. One plus is that we can save the seeds to use the next year. Another plus is that we won't have to worry about GMOs. I don't know if anyone else has heard the debate about this recently, but Genetically Modified Organisms are not up my alley.

So far here's what we want to grow during the summer - tomatoes (Roma and slicing), summer squash, zuchini, green beans (bush), onions, cucumbers (slicing), watermelon, pumpkin, okra, peppers (sweet and maybe one jalepeno). After all that's done I'd like to plant spinach, lettuce, sugar snap peas and broccoli for a fall crop. I'm also thinking of working some herbs into one of my front flower beds. So far the only thing I've been able to grow well in this particular flower bed is crab grass and a few flowers. I think working the herbs between the flowers will be a good plan and look a lot better than crab grass. Sunflowers have been unsuccessful in all of my flowerbeds much to Brandon's disappointment. I think I'll try again with the sunflowers but I'll do it differently this year - when the weather gets warm I'll start them in the plethora of plant containers I have and then transfer them to the beds when they get a good size. I'll see if that helps.

What I'm really excited about is planting strawberries in the raised beds at the side of the house. Last year I grew some spectacular queen anne's lace - this year I think it can go to a better use. I need to do some research on preparing soil for strawberries, but I think it's gonna be good...better than buying strawberries from California every time I turn around, right?