I don’t know about you, but my favorite time of the year is spring. After a long winter, the birds start chirping, the plants start budding, all the smells of the spring flowers fill your senses. It just makes me happy.
With spring comes garden planning. Last year we expanded our garden. Yes, I’ll admit it was a gut reaction to COVID-19, so it was rushed together and didn’t produce much, but this year I have had time to plan, and the seed companies aren’t working double-time to get seeds out. Last year I didn’t get my seeds until the end of April, so it really stunted the growing season.
Our garden expansion ended up being 14 plots, each plot is 5×5 feet. That is more garden than we have ever had and I’m looking forward to watching it fill out. I spent a lot of time looking for food we like that will do well in our environment. Since we are in Utah, my focus was on varieties that do well in the dry heat. I think I did well for the most part, but we will find that out together.
On my sprout rack, I have some healthy-looking tomatoes, peppers, and cauliflower. All things I have grown before, but this year I’m trying a couple of new things. I started Aunt Molly’s Ground Cherries and some Gobbo Di Nizza Cardoon. Both of them I got from Baker Creek. The cardoon is supposed to be a member of the artichoke family. I love artichokes, so I’m hoping my expectations aren’t too high. The ground cherries are a sweet snack in a husk like a tomatillo. When they are ripe, they fall to the ground and you just peel off the husk and eat them. I’m looking forward to trying them both. I’ll let you know my thoughts at harvest time.
I also have several things I’m going to direct sew in the next couple of weeks, so I will update the blog as they happen.
I bought some of these cloth seedling bags on Amazon. In theory, they are supposed to be bio-degradable and won’t impact the root growth. I’m testing them out to see if they are all that they claim to be. So far I like the concept, but they are a little awkward to work with. Filling them up with dirt while holding it open and holding the seedlings in place took some work, but as you can see, I got it done. I can still bottom water them, and so far they don’t appear to dry out much faster. I’ll keep you posted on the biodegradability factor.
As you can see, some of these are ready to go into the ground. We are amending the soil with some compost over the next couple of weeks to help give them the nutrients they need. As soon as we can, I want to get these plants outside. Yes, you can grow things indoors for a while, but as they get bigger and you put them in bigger pots, they obviously take up more room. I am right now taking up my whole sprout rack and several feet on the floor.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll show you more of the spring prep for my summer garden.
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