I spent the morning working on my garden beds and getting them ready for spring planting. I’m direct composting my beds so as to continue my mostly organic gardening. (I have to say that I’m getting interested in going 100% organic, whereas I’m about 80% right now.) I’ll let the soil aerate and then add more compost this week before I top dress the beds.
As far as spring goes, I’m definitely doing a salsa garden – so cilantro, onions, tomatoes, peppers, and the like. That will allow me to experiment with my own salsa recipes this summer.
I already have one full bed with garlic and shallots. Those October bulbs should be ready to harvest around the first of May. In the meantime, I’ll probably go with a second, slightly smaller shallot planting to get us through the summer. I plan to save a number of my bulbs to replant shallots in the fall. (Shallots are a year-round request item from Chef Merrin.)
I know I’m doing two varieties of tomatoes – one for salsa/bruschetta and one for more traditional uses (ie hamburgers and salads). I think I will also do cucumbers for our nightly salads. I know we’re going to do a few zuccinis, too, but we learned our lesson last year with the 10 trillion zukes we had! Merrin will also want her herbs, so we’ll do a complete kitchen essentials herb garden, too.
Given my limited space, I almost have a mind to go vertical – perhaps adding some pole beans to climb with the cucumbers and such. Not sure on that one just yet, though. I still have to review with Merrin. I need to keep her stocked with fresh veggies for all those delicious dinners!
I think I’m going to run out of space before I get to the end of my list! Wouldn’t that be a surprise!
You go! You should go over to the old house and ask them if they’re going to use the old beds and if not, that you’d be glad to take them off their hands. Position it that you’re doing them a favor and that you’d be the one removing them from the yard and they don’t have to lift a finger.
Good point!! I may have to do that!
Ole Farmer Kevin. Sounds like you’ve got a good case of the gardening bug. It’s really a lot of fun planning out things then watching them grow. I’m looking forward to some of that home made salsa. I guess I should come visit soon so we can go to that all night garden supply store, I think that are still about 80% organic also.