Good morning everyone! I hope all of you had the most amazing week-end. We sure did.
We finally got a little glimmer of hope the past few days with a sun shining so bright and warm that our living room temperatures registered at 26’C in the afternoons and we were actually able to crack open the windows and let some fresh air in. We walked in the light, played in the snow, planted some seeds and just enjoyed a glimpse of what the next few weeks have in store.
Is there a happier sound than the snow on your roof, melting and trickling down your gutter? Or the sound of birds fighting over your bird feeder perches? It was an amazing time and I hope all that are in my neck of the woods (with so much snow we could have sold some to Sochi for the Olympics) had a similar experience this week-end.
On Sunday, my husband and I (with a fleeting participation of our daughter) launched the gardening season. Newspaper pots were folded, gardening journals were started, new gardening books were thumbed through and bookmarked and potting soil mix was prepped.
It was a bit early for vegetables, but we decided this year to start our own medicinal herb garden. Actually, we had decided on it last year and direct sowed our seeds into the ground. When nothing grew (live and learn), we decided to approach it from a more control oriented place this year. So if all goes well, we should be on our way to growing our own of the following :
- Old English Lavender
- Lemon Balm
- Vervain
- Blue Vervain
- Purple ConeflowerÂ
- German Chamomile
- Agastache
- Calendula
- Garden Sage
All of these should be perennial in our area if protected in winter with some mulch. Add to this our kitchen herbs and our attempts at growing ginger, we should have an amazing edible flower/plant bed before long! I’m having daydreams of all these amazing fragrant bouquets of beautiful herbs drying in the fall sun, ready to be preserved for tea and healing uses during the cold winter months. Oh! And we are also trying our hand at growing Amaranth. In addition to being a yummy alternative, gluten-free grain, they grow into these amazing, 6ft tall, flowering stalks. I can’t wait to have these in my backyard!
(click on the image to be redirected back to a yummy amaranth porridge recipe)
Needless to say, spring fever has hit our home and I couldn’t be happier!
HOW WAS YOUR WEEK-END?
Family, Faith, Food and Fabric 
I love the promise this time of year holds, always makes me smile. We had a wonderful weekend, much thanks to the beautiful day yesterday. You could certainly feel spring in the air.
What do you think of Year Round Vegetable Gardener? It is on my wish list, but haven’t taken the plunge yet.
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So far, I’m really enjoying it. I was so surprised at how many veggies can be grown as late as November an December! The book has also great tips on seed saving and building thrifty cold frames and green houses. And it’s written by a Canadian, so completely aware of the realities of gardening up here, you know? Definitely a wise purchase for me. 🙂
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We’ve been really excited about gardening this year too. It’s so encouraging to see your herb garden and medicinal herb garden plans! I know we have to build up to our lofty plans, being rather new at gardening, but we finally have a decent sized space for garden with unlimited access to wonderful manure from the horse farm behind us! Who knew wonderful and manure would be in a sentence together?? haha The dark leafy greens like kale are really interesting us, along with tomatoes and herbs, and root veg. Do you have a root cellar or similar cool storage for root crops, apples, etc.?
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Yeah, we’ve only been at it for 5 years and we are still learning. This year, we will be trying green manure (planting ground cover between veggies to fertilize and provide weed control) and transforming one of our raised bed into a hugelkulture bed. Google that term, it’s worth it!
No, unfortunately, we have a void under the house that would be perfect for storage if we didn’t have to keep minimum heat in there to avoid mold. So we can, dehydrate and freeze a lot. It is part of our plans though. We want to tear down the existing garage and build a new one, hopefully digging out a cellar underneath! But that is a “next 5 years” type of plan. 🙂
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Me and my boyfriend tried growing a mini garden last year and it all grew- but in days they all shriveled up- apparently you have to water lettuce HAHA.
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LOL! Yeah, I read somewhere that it helps. LOL!
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Oh, amaranth is gorgeous! I mix up my veggies and flowers (seeing as the best sun is at the front of the house), so it would fit right in 🙂
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Yeah, I want to plant my herbal garden in the front as well. Our plan is to have as much of an edible landscape as possible. We have a big lot and eventually, would like to get rid of pretty much all the grass.
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Ooooh newspaper planters! That’s a great idea. We have one lonely onion left on our onion braid from last year’s garden, and just at the last of our green beans. I was hoping to plant this year’s onion seeds over the weekend, but instead had a whirlwind fun family weekend. Perhaps tomorrow I will dig out the dirt and my kids and I will plant some seeds. The ground is still covered with snow here, so we are really in need of some earth! Have fun with the herb garden–we have an edible flowers and herb garden and it’s one of my favorite spots to sit!
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just *ate the last of the green beans. Sorry… typos!
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Yeah, we have TONS of snow left here too (it was even snowing yesterday) so needless to say, we are far from playing in the dirt. I would estimate the snow on our gardens at 4-5 ft.
Oh! Family Fun Weekends often trump what needs to be done here too. LOL!
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