The Garden Bug

Proud builder of our new greenhouse for seed starting

The garden bug bit me big time this year.  Hubby is starting to get a little bit anxious with all the plans running through my head for our garden this summer.

I want a greenhouse--where will we put it?
I want a rabbit so we can get free compost--no livestock.
I want to plant fruit trees--where?
I want to try growing potatoes--why?
I want a really big garden that will supply almost all of our produce needs--good luck.

All of my gardening conversations with Hubby pretty much follow along these lines.  He supports my gardening dreams, but with a healthy dose of skepticism due to my previous gardening...blunders.

Lisa, you need to weed the garden every week.  I do?  Why?  They're not hurting anything.
Lisa, you need to stop screaming every time you encounter a worm.  Does my screaming bother you, Hun?
Lisa, you need to water the garden every day when it doesn't rain.  So often?
Lisa, you need to prune your plants to get the most out of them.  Really?
Lisa, you need to keep up with the garden even when the mosquitoes are so thick you can barely see through them.  Do we really need to eat vegetables this year?
Lisa, you need to keep spraying the garden with Liquid Fence if you want to keep the rabbits, deer, and other wildlife away.  I have to do it more than once?

Gardening extraordinaire I am not.  But, I love to see big plants full of fresh produce ready to be turned into dinner.  I smile when I walk out my backdoor with my kitchen sheers and snip a little oregano, basil, green onions and chives and know that all these things came from my garden.  I feel immense satisfaction making a stirfry using only vegetables that I grew myself.

What do I normally do when I want to learn to do something that I am not good at?  I read.  I love to read, and I love to read books about things that interest me.  I have been requesting books from the library left and right about all things gardening--Square Foot Gardening, Vertical Gardening, Quarter Acre Farming, Urban Farming, and on and on.  The librarians are starting to look at me a little funny, waiting for the overalls to make an appearance.

I got a seed catalog in the mail and circled more seeds than I have room for in my garden.  How do you choose between Sugar Baby Watermelons and Fresca Strawberries?  They both sound delicious.

Yesterday I bought seed starting trays, potting soil, a small greenhouse for seed trays, and transplant pots.  It's going to be hard waiting until March to start growing the seedlings.  I'm trying to decide if I should construct a hoop house to warm the ground enough so I can put in cool crops this spring--spinach, radishes, lettuce.  Or maybe build some cold boxes--I have several salvaged glass doors and windows just waiting to be turned into cold boxes.

All these visions of growing enough produce to not only sustain my own family but to have enough excess to give away, donate or sell at a farmers market.

But first I need to make my peace with the worms, weeds, and mosquitoes.  I'm thinking about investing in a mosquito netting outfit.  Don't you think this would be classy???