Gardening Daydream…

Image via Wikipedia

Well, last weekend was a washout. So was practically the whole week. Frustrating, isn’t it?

Quite a few people have written in and mentioned that they are planting their own vegetable gardens this year. For one, you’ll save money. And then you know that your vegetables are truly healthy. And, nothing tastes better than the salad you just picked out of your garden. If you haven’t done it before, you really should try it.

My sister called me over tonight. Under the guise of bringing spaghetti – of course, and visiting.  Plus, I had the strawberry pot she needed. Oh, and she had gotten her plants from Michigan bulb – and would I help her get them planted before they die?

At least I got some tomato and brocolli plants out of the deal. When you order, they send you six plants, which is a lot for 2 people – so we split things.

I like to plant early girls and beefsteak tomatoes so I have fresh tomatoes longer. Beefsteak tomatoes are still my all time favorite. Love ’em! How about you?

But with all this cold and rain, all I’ve gotten done is getting the bed cleaned up and worked the dirt some. I’ll get out there tomorrow and at least get these plants going. Hopefully we won’t get anymore frost! I mean, it is May for heavens sake.

My sister had a lot of questions, but I’ll tell you – I’m not a gardening expert. I can tell you about planting easy fast stuff that’s easy to take care of. You know that’s my lifestyle.

You know how to get the best answers? Read what they put on the website or in the catalog. For the most part, they tell you everything you need to know to be successful. And if the plant dies, they’ll replace it. They really do.

I think the biggest mistake we all make is trying to plant something that needs full sun, in an area that doesn’t get full sun. I know I’ve tried to pull that one off a number of times. Rarely works.

If you follow the directions, the plants usually do great.

I’ll never forget the first year I ordered from these sites. I had new construction with no landscaping, and a corner lot. I decided I would put tall hedge along the back, and lilacs down the side. Imagine my surprise when I basically got boxes of sticks! But, I followed the directions, and planted the sticks just like they said – while all my neighbors and my husband laughed at me.

They weren’t laughing the next year. I had a beautiful yard full of plants and flowers. So there!

I had one landscape designer peek into the yard when we were having a garage sale. He was really surprised. He said that he had never thought of using some of the plants they way that I had.

I had evern tried to find irish moss that year to plant around the patio block. I called every nursery with no luck. One designer even got snotty with me, saying that everyone else was trying to get rid of it. Now you see it in all the catalogs. Guess it wasn’t such a dumb idea afterall.

If you don’t mind some losses, play around and experiment. Just remember that if it needs full sun, you want to make sure that it gets full sun for a good part of the day.

One trick I used was to plant my roses and tomatoes where they got morning sun. This way they weren’t getting scorched during the hottest part of the day. And when it started getting cold, the morning sun would warm the plants up and they lasted longer. I had tomatoes and roses far longer than anyone else.

One other thing I did was to plant just a few lettuce seeds every week. Then I had fresh lettuce all summer.

Oh, there are some things I’ve tried that I won’t try again – like corn and pumkins. And I don’t have the room or the time to do a full blown vegetable garden with carrots and onions and such. My grandparents used to grow green onions. They were good. Maybe I can find the room….

Peppers are easy, and there are so many different kinds.

Even when I lived in apartments, I had pots out on my balcony. I’ve got to have my home grown tomatoes!

It’s great fun for the kids to go out and pick the salad. I still have memories of going out to the yard to pull up some onions, or pick some tomatoes. For soem reason, that kind of stuff just sticks with you. And I figure if it stuck with me, it will stick with my daughter and hopefully she’ll pass it on too.

And for all these years, we’ve been ordering from these sites –

Gurney’s 

Henry Field’s  (my favorite because they have my favorite tomatoes, and other veggies)

Michigan Bulb (my sister’s apparent favorite)

SpringHill (good for unusual items and pre-planned gardens)

Can you taste those July BLTs! Now that’s dinner 😉 With home grown lettuce, tomato and brocolli? Yum!

Oh my goodness – look at the time. It’s been fun sharing my garden daydream with you – but I’ve got to get to sleep!

Talk soon!

Carole