Dreaming of Greening
By Karina | February 17, 2010
In what is turning out to be an annual posting event since we first started writing TinyChoices, I wanted to remind you that it’s CSA sign-up time again! we are sending a check in this week to the people we had our share with last year – Sycamore Farms – our share last year was a serious bonanza of deliciousness.
But now that our CSA needs are so neatly taken care of, what is a girl to do in February in the northeast? (Might I add that while we are not dealing with three feet of snow here as many of my friends are, I shoveled the driveway before coming indoors to write this post.) This girl has been garden planning. As much as it’s not the best eco-choice, I love getting seed catalogs. Even though we are lazy yard maintainers/gardeners, I so much enjoy pouring through a seed catalog, dreaming of plants and dreaming that they will flourish next year.
I do have a secret weapon in my back pocket – my mom is an excellent gardener and landscaper, and we’ve been consulting with her on the best no-mow grasses, meadows, and flowers to put into substantial parts of our large yard. I spoke to someone at a party last weekend, and she said we could come over and divide her flourishing raspberry and blackberry bushes for our back yard. Besides the no-mow grasses and berries in back, we are also thinking of planting a couple of fruit trees (especially where we have to cut down a big tall tree that was struck by lighting) and maybe some early-ripening grape tomato plants. Plus! Herbs! conveniently located in the front of the house, so we don’t have to go far to get what we need while cooking.
Of course if seed cataloging isn’t for you, reflect back on no-cost gardening tips in this guest post! Plus, don’t fret if you don’t have a yard or space to grow big plants – you can start small, and/or start indoors.
Have you got grand green garden plans?
[[Photo via creative commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fritish/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0]]
Topics: Food, Home | 6 Comments »
grande green garden! i like that name. :)
we are planning to use the 400 sq ft garden area from last year again PLUS a new plot in the backyard for even more organic goodness (we have issues with grass so we figured we’d just rid of some).
on the list this year: tomatoes, eggplants, peppers (hot and bell), tomatillos, potatoes, onions, carrots, squash, zucchini, herbs, garlic. the asparagus plot is in it’s 3rd year so we’ll be able to eat a lot more this year.
now, we just have to wait for all the NJ snow to melt …
OH! asparagus! we’ve been talking about putting that in so we can enjoy it for the rest of our lives… thank you for the reminder!
I just bought my seeds today – so excited! It’s my favorite part of winter. I’m not allowed to look at seed catalogs until January, but then I have weeks of dreaming about them. Now I spend the rest of winter starting seeds and dreaming how I”ll fit all those plants into my tiny urban backyard. Some people think 5 or 6 schematic drawings is overkill, but it’s how I get through Minnesota’s February and March. And April. And early May.
it’s not overkill at all! in general, I find the planning to be the best part of the gardening experience. :)
I’m starting my first container garden this year. I have a knack for killing things so we’ll see how it goes, but I’m really excited about supplementing my CSA with things I’ve grown myself – especially herbs.
I planted all my goodies on Saturday. Living in Southern California means that it’s warm enough to go for it already. It’s starting to feel like Spring!
[...] – suffice it to say: we have a big yard, which I love, and I am a lazy gardener, which is a shame because I have big plans – but sometimes it’s hard to even just keep the darn thing mowed and the leaves [...]