Gardening in the Spring

I got my first seed catalog a few days ago!  It was the big and beautiful Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  It is a very fun catalog to peruse.  The kids have picked out what they want to grow….and I am building my list daily. I think I have a  local source for seeds in town here, we’ll have to wait and see what they put out after the Christmas season. 

Last year our gardening consisted of putting in a few veggie plants in the unused side of the raspberry beds.  We had such a bumper crop that we are very excited about the prospects for this next year. 

We planted 4 or 5 tomato plants, 1 yellow squash, 1 zucchini squash, 4 eggplants, 2 jalapeno, 2 rosemary, 1 chives, and 1 thyme.  Everything grew fantabulously!  We are so encouraged.  This was our best garden yet and the effort we put into it was minimal.  I can’t wait to see what happens this next growing season.

This next year we have plans for 3 or 4 rather large raised beds.  4 x 16 to be exact.  One of them will eventually become nothing but asparagus.  Half of another garden will be for rhubarb.  The rest will be planted out in assorted veggies.  We are going to do the Square Foot Gardening method of intensive gardening.  We don’t have the longest growing season up here in Minnesota, so there really is only time for one large planting of most crops and a few rotations of some of the littler plants. 

If our garden does as well as I hope, I will have to learn how to can and freeze.  I remember Mom canning tomato sauce when I was a kid…..it can’t be that hard.  LOL  If Mom could do it, anyone can.  I did freeze some of the zucchini squash from last years garden.  I had never made zucchini bread until this summer and now we all love it.  I also chopped and froze the chives. 

Another activity that we hope to be able to start doing is going down to the farmer’s market here in town and selling our excess produce.  I think it would be a good experience for the kids and give us something to do as a family.  The farmer’s market is held very close to the lake, so getting the kids involved shouldn’t take much.  I’m hoping the asparagus will go over well at the farmer’s market.  It will take three years before I will be able to harvest a sizeable crop, but I don’t think I remember seeing anyone with homegrown asparagus at the market last year. 

We also hope to refurbish the raspberry bed.  It needs more soil thrown in, weeding, and mulch.  We love the raspberries we get each summer.  The bed will naturally fill in and I may supplement it with an extra plant or two.  The best thing in the world is to wake up early and go out when the dew is heavy on the grass……and walk around the raspberry bed, picking and munching, picking and munching.  Very few berries ever make it inside.