Gardening

My seed planting helper

Well, it's getting to be that time of year again! Garden season! I am sooooo excited!! It has been hard for me to wait and not rush to get things started outside since we've had such warm days lately. But I know I am in a different garden zone now and have to plan accordingly. That was one nice thing about Oregon. We could grow just about anything and at pretty much anytime. We'd be eating lettuce and spinach from our garden by this time of year back in Oregon. Here, not so much.

But we were able to start some seeds so hopefully if all "grows" well we'll have some starts for the garden. We have a bunch of heirloom tomatoes started from seeds we saved from a couple years ago. We also have some lemon cucumbers, zucchini, broccoli, herbs and some lettuces. Most everything has come up nicely, though it looks like there may be a few things we either have to try planting again or just get starts from a nursery.

The girls have been good about helping me keep the soil moist with a little spray bottle and they are so happy to watch the seeds sprout and grow.

 We also planted some wheat seeds and lemon seeds for fun in our kitchen window. The wheat has grown so fast and looks so pretty! However, I think we are going to have to try some more lemon seeds as we haven't seen any signs of life and it has been a couple weeks now.

Little gardeners.

 One thing we did end up planting outside already was some early carrot seeds. Since our soil is pretty hard out here (I REALLY miss my raised garden beds!) we decided to try growing carrots in 5 gallon buckets. The girls each got a bucket and planted their seeds and make sure to keep them moist. They get plenty of sunshine as the backyard faces South and we have the buckets close by the house so they can't really get frosted. Hopefully we'll see some results, but if not, it will be a good lesson in perseverance and we'll just try again!

Some of our little sprouts. They are already much bigger than when I took this picture a couple days ago.

 This week I also got out the power tools and built a trellis for growing peas and beans on. I had a lot of fun and hopefully the trellis will last for many more years of gardening.

So, that's pretty much how our garden is growing right now. I will be trying to post regular updates as the season progresses. In the meantime, I'm off to read some books on gardening. There is always so much to do and learn!

Blessings!