Waiting for Spring

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

Waiting for cloudless days. Waiting for the mud to dry. Waiting for the right time to spend a chunk of time outside without being cumbersomely bundled up.

Waiting for spring.




But perhaps I've waited long enough.

So...no more waiting. I just need to get out and do...or I will have blown my window of opportunity to wake up the garden and get things rolling.

So last night, H-Bob and I pulled out our seed collection. We surprisingly have leftover seeds from most of what we usually plant, although I did notice that quite a few were purchased in 2009 which is pushing viability a bit. On our next trip to the local farm store together, we plan on taking our list and browsing the seed racks. There's always something new to try...like celery...or a different variety of tomato or pepper to attempt. Just one of the beauties of growing your own veggies...it's just never the same.



Our next step will be to fill up some seed starting trays with soil, put them on our seed-starting mat in the house, and wait for them to sprout. Then they promptly head out to the greenhouse under the fluorescent lights to do their thing.



In the meantime...as long as we don't keep waiting for those optimum conditions...our job will be to haul up the composted horse manure to the raised garden beds to top dress them for the spring planting. That will give things a month or so to settle in before some serious outdoor plantings can occur in April.

Of course there are other garden chores...finish tying up the new Marionberry canes, cutting down the everbearing raspberries, constructing some new raised beds, hauling up used goat bedding to cover the garden paths, and the list could go on. But at least we've made a start...stay tuned.