It's March and I'm Obsessing Over Garden Season

Tomorrow it's going to be 80 degrees outside. I can hardly believe it. The snow around my house is gone, the geese are back in residence at the thawing lake honking up a storm every night. Signs of spring are all around from buds on the trees to a few green blades of grass peeking up. Good bye Old Man Winter, you were no friend of mine this past season!

You might remember, the majority of my gardening consists of containers on my deck. It's easier for me to manage that way. No real weeding to worry about. No animals digging and rooting around in the garden. Super easy to manage any potential pests. Easy to plant and clear up at the end of the season too. 

Indigo Blue Berries- photo from Territorial Seeds

I'm already planning my tomato choices. Starting from seed this year I am growing Indigo Blue Berry tomatoes- darling dark blue cherry tomatoes; Chocolate Cherries- an heirloom brown cherry tomato; and Gold Nugget cherries- a yellow round cherry tomato. I'm sure I'll pick up a few transplants from the greenhouse too. Every year I say I won't But I can't help myself!

Chocolate Cherry tomatoes- photo from Territorial Seeds

I will have to make a decision about peppers this year too. I didn't get any hot pepper seeds started in time, so I will have to buy transplants. That means I may have to stick to the common peppers like habanero or jalapeno, or the less fearsome poblanos or hot bananas. I love all kinds of peppers so it doesn't matter what I end up planting. I'll find a great way to utilize it.

Gold Nugget tomatoes- photo from Territorial Seeds

I have also started a few pots of herbs this year. Usually I wait until I can direct-sow them but this year I decided to get a head start on some of the herbs I always run out of over the winter, and use a lot more of during the summer. I love herbs in tossed salads so I always use loads of basil, parsley and chives. We make a lot of Italian dishes and use a lot of basil all year long, both dried and fresh, and that's one tender herb I can't direct sow until it's really warm out. I figure this year I'll try starting some inside and see if I can jump start my crop.

Brazilian Starfish from Chileplants.com.
I've been seriously thinking about trying them.

Every spring I have a fierce internal debate about flowers. I love flowers, and I have a few perennials in the garden- several beautiful Asian lilies and hosta, but as far as other flowers go I generally don't plant very many. I love flowers though, and love having butterflies and hummingbirds and bees visit my garden but...... like my dad always said... you can't eat flowers. Later in the season when its hot and dry and I have to water those containers every day I find myself not wanting to water the flowers, but I feel guilty for letting a living plant die......

My patio furniture has taken a beating over the winter. New cushions are in order for one thing, and the outdoor kitchen needs to be completed. The deck has a shabby red finish, but some of the wood has held fast to the finish and never adopted the shabby look, so...... the whole thing will need to be restained so it looks the same. That's ok. I just can't wait til I can sit out there in the warm breeze, listening to the geese across the street in the lake. Birds chirping. Cats winding around my feet, meowing. The smell of fresh cut grass........

Hurry up Spring!!

Farmers' Market Season is here!

It's my favorite time of year again- farmers' market season! The spring produce is just starting to be ready, the days are getting warmer, and all the small towns in west central Iowa are starting their farmers' market season. It won't be long and gardens will be bursting with fresh, delicious food. 

For the first time since I moved from the city, the nearby town of Dexter now has a farmers market. Tuesday afternoons the historic Roundhouse will be filled with vendors selling locally grown produce, homemade baked good, jams and jellies, handcrafted items and more. Nearby Stuart has their market on Wednesday in the city park. Almost every night of the week you can find a market within a few minutes drive.

It's fun to watch the weekly offerings change as the season progresses. Early markets boast loads of asparagus, radishes, peas and spring greens. If you're lucky you might find a market with morels for sale. Mid-summer brings all the warm weather fruits and vegetables- strawberries to sweet corm, tomatoes to zucchini. One of the best things about the weekly market is the ever-changing variety of fresh ingredients. I love to stop after work and grab something I see and create a dinner with vegetables picked just hours ago.

Pick your own farms are a big hit in the area as well. It's a great way to get a large quantity of something like cucumbers for pickle-making, or tomatoes for canning, and usually saves a lot of money. It's a great resource for people like me who love home-canned foods but just don't have the garden space to grow so much.

Most of the farmers' markets continue until the end of October. Fall markets boast apples, pears, winter squash, decoratives like cornstalks and of course, pumpkins!

From the humble road side corn stand to the bustling big city Downtown Farmers Market, summer is all about celebrating the wonderful fresh foods we have available, so get out there and shop your local farmers' markets!

(Top photo of produce in baskets courtesy of Online Farmers Markets Group)

Garden Season is upon us!!

Finally! I thought that winter was NEVER going to end! Finally the birds are chirping, the dandelions have opened their sunshiny faces, my yard is filled with violets. The hope of morel mushrooms, that secret spot where I dig ramps- these are happy happy days. Spring is also garden season. Many of our wonderful recipes depend on garden fresh produce and herbs picked immediately before using and having a garden is the surest way to have fresh, delicious food. 

Many people these days are concerned with what commercial growers do to the food crops in the field. Raising your own garden puts you on control of everything- from the type of tomatoes and peppers to the type of plant food or amendments you make to your soil. If going organic is important to you, gardening is the perfect way to do so.

Baby kale!!

It's also very economical. A packet of seeds costs just a dollar or two and  can provide dozens if not hundreds of food-producing plants. Some seeds are easy to start, others more difficult, just grab a garden book or head to Google and read up! Garden centers are also full of transplants ready to go right into your garden- every year I do a little bit of both. Some plants, like radishes and carrots, need to be direct-sowed too.

Baby lettuce in one of several pots.

I used to have huge gardens in the ground, and eventually switched to large raised beds, but as my family has grown up and gone out on their own, I don't need such a large garden anymore. Plus, I like to switch it up and try new things every once in a while. This year I am growing some veggies in containers, some in the ground, and some in straw bales.

For now, I've got four tomatoes planted in their pots, two habanero peppers, two serrano chilies, loads of herbs, zucchini, lettuce, kale. In a few days I'll be starting the straw bales and getting the in-ground things in. I have a few new and interesting things to share with you as soon as get the rest done- so stay tuned!

Spring oh spring, where art thou?

The weekend has arrived! Finally! Seems like one of the longest weeks of the year. We have had a few days of tease- beautiful 60 and 70 degrees, lots of sunshine and breeze, windows-open kind of days. And............crash back to reality and snow on Sunday.  It's still early in the season, and it WON'T last very long.

Our first ever ghost chili.

I'm looking forward to getting into the dirt this year. My goal is to embrace the Little Lake House and do some major sprucing up in the yard and establish some new gardens that hopefully will be the absolute last re-do I have to go through in this house. I have plans......... but I won't rehash that. I've already told you guys.

Tiger lilies wait for the mail man

I spent quite a while last evening sorting and inventorying seeds. Holy Rubbermaid do I have seeds. It looks like I was planning ahead in the event green beans and shelling peas were to become extinct. I'd have the seeds to save the world !! I'm still looking for a farmer to help me out with the pea project but the beans I plan on planting myself. Sometimes it's not until you really sit down and LOOK at what you have that you realize just how MUCH you actually do have. 

No Italian chef has a garden without banana peppers!

I am a little lacking in the herb seed department. I have plenty of basil and parsley and probably enough regular sage to get a good supply started. It's the fun things I am missing. No red ruffles basil. No flavored thyme- just a couple packets of plain English thyme. Not a single chive seed in the bunch either. How the heck did THAT happen? I seem to have way more cilantro seed than a person should have on hand. I don't really even like the stuff- I'm TRYING to force myself to accept it and move on. 

Purple ruffles basil- so pretty in salads.

I have two, yes, count 'em, two varieties of tomato and that is it my friends. Seems kind of silly but I feel compelled to pick up more varieties!! But over the years I found I have had just as much success with transplants and I don't need to worry about nursing all these baby plants. I will start a couple for us for fresh eating but we like to go to the pick your own farm and LOAD UP on tomatoes for canning day. And peppers- that's another one...... I have so many pepper seeds- hot and sweet and everything in between! That is another plant I don't have great success with seedlings, especially the super hots. I need a greenhouse to be truly successful and that's just not in the budget.

We love cherry tomatoes!

Flower seeds? Who needs those? Except for a few, I rarely grow flowers. Sure there are some perennial lilies and a flowering shrub in my yard but in most cases, if it's not edible, I don't grow it. And certainly later in the season when it gets really hot, and doesn't rain, watering the edibles is much more important and the flowers are the first to go. Now, I do like to plant a few flowers in and among the vegetables, they help deter nibblers and look pretty and they aren't hurting anybody taking up a little space in a corner of the bed. Marigolds fit the bill perfectly. Or sunflowers- now THAT is a flower I can get behind! Literally. I'm 5'2". Some of them are 7 feet tall. Tasty seeds for the humans and the birds are a big bonus when growing sunflowers.

Zinnias add some color to the deck.

I have planned some new things for the garden this year and I think I might sneak a grapevine in there. I have the perfect crappy spot. Yes, I said crappy. Grapes thrive in crappy soil and growing conditions because they are forced to root deeply in search of water and nutrients. Some of the world's best wine grapes grow in the absolute worst conditions. I will be happy with a humble Concord or other such grape- maybe make a little jelly or jam or juice.