Veggie Garden 2013

I'm getting Spring Fever. The need to go get my hands dirty, mud caked on the boots and sore muscles from hefting mulch. I can hardly wait. This time of the year is made for planning. My garden planning is in full swing. I've combed the pages of the Burpee catalog, putting post-its on nearly every page for everything I want to add to the garden this year. After finally thinning it down I got my seeds ordered and they arrived several weeks ago. I have to admit I spent a bit more than planned. It's ok, it's not like anything will go to waste. There are enough mouths, both human and animal, to clean up every scrap that garden produces.

It's amazing how little $75 buys you with a seed catalog.

I went a little nuts with the summer squash this year. I'm trying five varieties: patty pan, yellow egg, bush zucchini, spahgetti and eight ball. Seeing as I usually have an all out war with the squash bugs, this might be interesting. I spent the last evening planning out the garden using an online garden planning program. It was easy and I have a working plan for how I'm going to lay out everything. If you aren't familiar with plant companions, here is a website that will help you choose what to plant next to what. For instance corn likes beans, cucumbers, melons and pumpkin but doesn't do well next to tomatoes.  I'm going to have a nice walkway through the garden this year in an attempt to be able to navigate it once everything gets growing. Right now it's 30 foot by 30 foot but I think we are going to rototill it an extra 10 feet in width because everything is a bit smushed.

The kids and I started three varieties of tomatoes and one variety of bell pepper yesterday. They were so eager to help, it made me happy. Such helpful little ones. After the seeds were planted I covered the trays with cling wrap and went looking for a warm place to keep them until they sprouted. Turns out the chicken brooder gives off plenty of heat so I placed the trays around that. Once they sprout they will go in a sunny window (or I'm toying with the idea of buying some grow lights.). If this works I'll have 48 tomato plants and 16 bell pepper plants, whew!