Saturday, February 28, 2009

Tis the season...almost!

The day I've waited so long for is finally here (on tuesday!). Our average last frost date! At the end of every summer I'm always bummed thinking it's going to be an eternity before we have tomatoes and basil and cucumbers and summer squash, but here it is already, Spring! Greg and I watched a cooking show today while eating lunch, the host was slicing the worlds most delicious looking tomato. Greg commented on how good it looked and I said something about how I'm so ready for tomato season again. Here it comes. I'm ridiculously excited. Which is strange because I moved all of our summer seedlings outside quite awhile ago. But anyway, time for the real gardening to begin.

I have somewhat of a conundrum in that I need to start preparing the grow heap for the cucurbits but the plot it has been assigned to is the plot with the peas...which just started flowering. Lovely.

It seems like this time of year is filled with nothing but weeding, which I love so I shouldn't complain. The rains we just received have really helped the weeding process. My past week was spent out in the garden, weeding, and planting nasturtiums. I've also started pruning the lemon tree, who knows the last time it was pruned...it's taking forever. After I'm done pruning and spraying the lemon tree with a soapy water/baking soda solution I'm going to plant nasturtiums underneath it.

In pruning the lemon tree I have discovered a whole new area of our yard. What fun! The back corner behind the lemon tree goes mostly untouched, Greg has been back there but I sure haven't. It struck me today how absolutely perfect it would be for a shady lettuce and Greens garden. There's a giant ugly oleander in the middle of everything, that must go.

A friend of mine has offered to give me a worm composter that she inherited from her house's previous owner. I almost peed my pants with excitement when I heard the news. I haven't picked it up from her yet (maybe because I haven't stopped weeding) but I have been reading up on vermicomposting and all of it's glory. Once I get the bin set up I plan on buying worms from the worm lady at the lakeside farmer's market.

I went to the nursery a few days ago to look at their strawberries and judge whether the strawberries in my yard got verticulum from my soil or if they brought it with them from the grower. Well they absolutely brought it with them, which really pisses me off. Anyway as I was leaving the guy behind the counter gave me a free gardening magazine, which was really random. In the magazine there was an article about pepper plants and how they are actually perennials, and not annuals as most people think. I've decided to grow all of my peppers in pots this year and take them inside in the winter to test this new perennial pepper knowledge. I've ordered giant marconi peppers from burpee. They sound wonderful.

I also ordered carolina cross #183 watermelon seeds, against my better judgement. What I'm going to do with a triple digit pounder watermelon I don't know. Perhaps a watermelon eating party.

That's all for now. Hope everyone is as excited as I am about spring! Hooray!

1 comment:

Amanda said...

I will gladly join in on a watermelon eating party :) I planted nasturtiums under my lemon tree as well! We are on some sort of the same gardening wavelength! I'm really excited for spring, too! When Tom and I got home from Kauai, the weather had decidedly changed. The second I walk out our front door I'm greeted by the beautiful smell of orange blossoms! MMmmmmm :)