Monday, March 19, 2012

Garden update - March 2012

So.  First garden update of the year.

 The clematis survived; I'm surprised. It lived all summer in the lousy plastic pot it came in, and I figured I'd killed it. 

My amazing husband is 90% done with a "real" compost bin. Last year, we made do with the dozen or so random tomato cages we found in the back corner of the yard when we bought the house. No clue where they came from; the people who lived here previously didn't garden (and it shows!). Not sure about the people before them, but there was no obvious garden patch, the whole yard was grass.

After the bin is finished, we're building a 3rd raised bed. Some of last year's compost can go in it, and we'll fill the bin with new fixin's. Which we have a lot of. I'm pretty sure we cleaned up the leaves and stuff last fall, but we've been working in the yard the last two weekends, and the pile of compostable stuff is way, wwaayy bigger than we expected. And here I was wondering if I could cruise the neighborhood on trash morning and grab some bagged leaves. Doesn't look like I'll need to do that after all.

Planted spinach and lettuce already, had to go buy radish seed. The radishes and peas will be planted tonight (allergies willing). The heat mat I ordered for starting seeds will be here tomorrow, and I'll work up a system to start the bell peppers, herbs, flowers, and whatever else. I plan to start the peppers (mini bell mix), basil, rosemary, thyme, delphinium, zinnias (big purple ones), possibly cantaloupe and pumpkins, and maybe some others. Depends on when I run out of room in the seed-starting trays.

 And, allergy season SUCKS. Even with two kinds of meds, I was ready to dig my eyes out with a dull spoon last night. This will probably be the year I start seeing an allergist, because this is insane and annoying, and it's getting worse. Year before last, I started having oral sensitivities too - as of last year, I couldn't eat raw cherries, apples, or carrots, which are the three veggie-snack staples. And I think it's spread to celery and pears. If cantaloupe is added to the list, I will cry.