Garden, Year 2

YAY for FINALLY some nice weather while I was home! I spent a lot of the day getting garden stuff and then working in the garden. When we ended the fall last year I wanted to do a compost pile but we didn't really have a place to do it so I just stuck everything in my garden...that made for some nasty clean up today. Yuck. I am going to do the day in bullet points because it is much easier than trying to tell a story..and honestly, I am lazy and tired from my day.

--drug Craig to Lowe's to help with getting the garden soil and such. I was disappointed that they didn't have any garlic I could plant but we did get some blueberry plants (yay).

--Since I can't find the seeds that I SWEAR I bought earlier in the year..I know I did because Craig made fun of me since it was February, I bought some more seeds but since they didn't have garlic we ended up at this other place that my friend Ali told me about and I am in love. It was about 120 degrees in the place so Craig's patience was short (and it was the SECOND store in a row I made him go to so I am lucky I got to go at all) but they had bulk seeds. You did it just like you do nuts or candy at the store..how cool is that? The best part? They were ridiculously cheap...seriously. You know I love cheap. The little packets at the store are around $1-3 depending on what you get, well, I got more of each kind for a grand total of $3 for about 10 different kind of seeds. Some of my packets (carrots, lettuce, etc) whose seeds weighed nothing were in the cents....much better than $2! Craig was wondering if the yield from them might be lower because they probably are engineered like the ones in the store. I am not sure about that but we will see this season and I just might take those packets back to Lowe's. It was like being in a candy store. Craig made me leave because he said if he didn't I would end up getting to excited and getting multiple packets of the same thing (he didn't REALLY make me but he was strongly suggesting).

--we built TWO compost bins type thingies today. YAY. I moved all the stuff from my garden to the bins. That was disgusting!!! I couldn't really do it with the shovel because the one thing it didn't have was good drainage so the leaves were wet and HEAVY so I ended up doing it with my hands (with gloves). It also had all our food scraps and smelled like the bottom of a lake...yuck. The good news is that we have a place for it and hopefully when it warms up we will see some compost turn into dirt.

--along the same compost theme....I was stepping on the ground near the compost bins that were now built and it was all spongy feeling. I asked Craig what was there (for fear I was stepping on some animal home...we have a TON of woods in the back of our house) and he said that was just where he has always put his leaves in the fall...REALLY?? Yeah, so I uncovered the top layer of this years leaves and low and behold...compost dirt!!! It was awesome...so "clean", you know, not muddy but really flaky and black and well, spongy. I dug some of it up and after tilling the garden, I put some in there. I think that I will try to dig up some more another day. It should really help the garden.

--this year's plants/crops will be: artichoke, zucchini, lettuce, carrots, peas, green beans, pumpkin, watermelon, garlic (if I don't find the starters I will just use an organic one from the store), onions, and possibly potatoes!! Plus strawberries and maybe bluberries and rhubarb.

--Finally, random fact....did you know that if you got an organic clove of garlic you can pull it apart and plant it and it will grow more garlic? I had no idea....it has to be organic because the other stuff often has "growth retardent" on it so it doesn't sprout between the time picked and the time you get it from the grocery. I have even had garlic sprout before but never thought about planting it. Another random fact...same for potatoes!! I saw potato "seeds" yesterday at the store and all it was were potatoes with the little eyes still on them....the instructions on the bag said to cut the potato up to where there was one eye per section and then leave it to "crust over" and then plant it. I think that same thing for organic applies but am not sure. I had some potatoes here that grew eyes while I have been on the road a lot lately and so I cut them up last night and I am going to try to plant them. I can't remember but I don't think they were organic..I usually do get organic but for some reason I don't think these are. The "eyes" have sprouted pretty big so I am hoping it works out...HA!


Well, that is it for this edition of Melissa's Garden :-)