Getting Started on the Spring Garden!

I don't know about you... but I am DONE with winter. Maybe for a different reason than what you are thinking. Sure, it is cold. And the snow days! Loved them... until the make up days started to pile up. And I am really looking forward to the sun and the pool and the beach. But right now,  I just want to play with my plants!! You can't do a lot in the dirt when the dirt is frozen.

My family managed to accomplish quite a bit of garden work just before the latest wintry mix showed up here in the usually-temperate-south. And we were ready for a bit of ice! We made our very first greenhouse! My husband and my son, nearly 11 years old, did the manual labor. I happily weeded other garden beds nearby, as did my younger son, 9 years old.

Our top priority tasks for the "holy cow it is 70 degrees" day were to get the spent plants out of the way, begin the weeding to get the beds ready for new plants, get the early spring plants going in their beds and put up the greenhouse for our tender greens. Later, we will use the greenhouse to get started on our summer veggies and fruits, like tomatoes and peppers. I hear rumors that some first graders might be helping with the seed planting soon, so we will be using that greenhouse for summer plants before we know it!

The before picture wasn't so lovely.

But the after shot captured a bit of our progress!

These pitiful frozen Kale plants were... ew. Get 'em outta there.



But, it was nice to see the strawberries growing new life after a cold winter!

And the garlic and onions planted by the students in Mrs. M's third grade class are looking great!
But some of the boards on our raised beds needed some work. This one has been "chewed up" by years of moisture in the soil! And maybe some pests, too.

The damaged boards have been replaced, thanks to my husband and two sons! Best way to get your kids excited about gardening? Let them use power tools. Oh, wait, that's just me? Well, then maybe do it the right way and show them how cool it is to make food with tiny seeds or little seedlings. Notice the weeds have been removed, too. Garlic HATES to share space with weeds! 

One thing you can't see in the after shot is that we now have onions and shallots hidden under the soil of a large bed. They will pop up in this bed with these leeks that you can see here. They should have gone in the ground in the fall with their garlic buddies. But that's ok. They will just be a little smaller. Onions, shallots and garlic need the time in the fall to develop strong roots. The cold won't kill them.

 We also have carrot seeds scattered over a smaller bed. I look forward to showing you the progress of this bed as the seedlings emerge. We had some awesome carrots last year!

And our glorious new temporary green house is ready to protect our lettuce, spinach, chard and other spring plants in case we have more of these crazy 18 degree nights! We repurposed some PVC pipe we had laying in our driveway and some 2x2 boards we found in a pile. I copied this idea from many other gardeners, and I let this project be a father/son activity. I find weeding to be relaxing. My husband? Does not. However, he is a champ at building and happily toiled away on the greenhouse while I did the more gardening-ish aspects of the family gardening day.

See the spring plants hiding in there? The plastic cover lifts off for those extra warm early spring days. (I want more of those, please!) See the Logan's boxes? That is where we take our produce to "Plant a Row for the Hungry." Logan's One Stop Garden Shop (AKA my happy-place) graciously stores what we. and other community gardens, grow in their giant refrigerator so that the Interfaith Food Shuttle can pick it up and distribute it to food banks and soup kitchens in our area. Our produce then feeds those in need in our community. Isn't gardening awesome??? We grow. We learn. Our community enjoys nutritious foods. Win. Win. Win.

The sugar snap pea vines have a place to climb! And there are even more seeds under the ground to complete the square in the bed! Sugar snap peas straight off the vine... mmm... nothing like 'em.

The raspberry branches are just beginning to put our the first signs of new leaves. We will need to give them a little more time before I can capture those leaves on camera.

I can't wait to get started on planting all those goodies hiding out in the greenhouse! And, as I said, I even look forward to finishing the weeding.  Fingers crossed that this silly ol' winter will move along so we can really get our hands dirty!