Saturday, January 9, 2010

Resolutions In The Garden


Cosmos will be part of Willa's Butterfly Garden and our honeybee sanctuary.


Happy New Year to all! What time is it? It's make big plans and promises time. Talking the talk without yet needing to lift a finger. Some I'll keep, some I'll drop. But for now, mid-January, the big plan making is all I got. Without further ado - The Garden Resolutions for 2010.

1. Getting back to vegetable gardening. There will be help in that garden this year. Since our house and other huge projects are finishing up, Corey is setting his sights on helping out - recognizing the importance of Willa witnessing and being a part of growing our own food. I can't begin to tell you how this will affect our vegetable garden. Perhaps some fencing? More weeding? Tilling so we can have that pumpkin patch I have dreamed about (and the harvest time-pumpkin picking party I envision for our friends)? If for nothing else, I know I am a social gardener and having both Willa and Corey down in the veggie garden will provide momentum and good gardening energy.

2. More and more edibles, please. Raspberries, figs, mulberries. Things that will establish themselves and be less maintenance than the aforementioned vegetable garden.

3. Garden sharing. We are thinking that we have a lot of land and would like to share one of our huge raised beds with someone not as fortunate. In return for access to the bed, we will just ask that the garden plot renter help out with weeding.

4. A portable salad box and testing out shade-grown lettuce varieties to extend the season.

5. A cold frame. I've wished for one of these for years. Maybe 2010 will be the year. I'm already gathering materials for my own version of a cold frame and will write about that over the following months.

6. A butterfly garden for Willa and a a honeybee sanctuary for the little buzzers. My inspiration for the sanctuary can be found here.

7. Embracing Ruth Stout. My pregnancy with a big baby and a little me left my body with torn stomach muscles, a hernia and back problems. While I try to work on these in physical therapy, I am going to save my back with Ruth's mulch methods. Eight inches of fluffy hay to cut back on hauling heavier mulches and weeding. Her thoughts on do-able, attainable asparagus beds without all that trenching really has me in a dither. More on this soon.

8. And while not directly related to our garden, a small attempt at eating more and more local food. 2009 included small harvests from our own garden and also belonging to a CSA for our vegetables and our eggs. This year I hope to incorporate grains from Wade's Mill, fish from Virginia Aqua-Farmers and meat from our neighbor, Gryffon's Aerie. My new favorite thing on the planet, Retail Relay, makes a lot of this local eating ridiculously easy.

I just re-read these and I sound like a nut-job. A full-ish time job and all of these projects? Laugh-laugh-laugh with me mid-July, dear readers. When my January garden thoughts summoned in front of a wood stove, curled up on the couch with my feet up, in the dark of the winter are challenged with the reality of bugs, brutal heat, humidity and droughts. At least this summer, I'll have more company for kvetching (in the the garden).

4 comments:

Les said...

Nut job? I don't think so, ambitious yes, but setting your bar high is a good thing. Good luck to you.

CCM said...

I am definitely NOT laughing at you. I figure goal-setting is like seed-starting: you have plant 2-3 seeds for every seedling that'll grow to be productive. I can't wait to see what good works you and your family do in the garden this coming year.

meredith said...

oh, i am the same way! i always have big garden dreams in january and february, with all those beautiful seed catalogs laying around and the wind outside blowing. those dreams get me through the winter! a lot of those dreams don't make it to fruition (i'm still trying to figure out this gardening with a baby thing), but they are still worth the dreaming.

lotta said...

yes, quite a list. but without ambitions one never succeeds. My garden list is twice as long, we can laugh together come July..