Have you started yet?

Preparing for spring

My friend M has the coolest garden with all kinds of delicious vegetables. When we visit, Wood Sprite makes a beeline to grab something and eat it—usually something that she claims she doesn’t even like at home! My friend says that good soil and good seeds are her secrets, so this year I am preparing.

I’m ordering seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds Company, which is where she buys hers. I’m also buying soil from a local composting company that she recommends. Finally, I’m planning gardens with my family by organizing where they will go and constructing cool new containers.

There’s also this really cool seed mat you can make from Annie’s Kitchen Garden. After reading it, I think it’s a brilliant idea—and that maybe the reason why so many of my small seeds failed last year was because I didn’t do this (or thin them!). I can’t wait to try this out.

One of my dreams is to fully grow most of the food we eat. Eventually I want fruit trees, vegetables and even nut trees on our property. Now that we own a home, we can really start becoming farmers. A few summers ago, when I first squealed over our pumpkins and peppers and said, “We’re farmers!” Wood Sprite came back with, “We are farmers, bum bah bum bah bum bum bum!” like the commercial. I hope that I’ll be just as excited this year when we do even more trial and error and try to grow our own food again.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia