How Does Our Garden Grow?

It is Oregon... with overcast skies and giant mud puddles requiring kayaks to navigate, I am finally ready to start on my garden. Well, with a little help from the mud-pie-makin'-posse.

Armed with some extra trays, a great little Jiffy kit, and a whole host of vegetable wishes and seedling dreams, we got a little dirty. ...and Little Girl tried to decide if dirt tasted as good as it looked.

My son is working on daisies and cherry tomatoes. I planted a whole variety of indoor sown plants like; eggplant, leeks, kale, basil, pak choi & brussel sprouts. I still have a whole sack of seeds for direct sowing, but they will have to wait for warmer ground temps.

My suggestion is to clearly mark all your seed trays! Nothing like forgetting what is what when it comes to planting time. Though we use Popsicle stick markers, but other markings on your trays in case you have small "helpful" children like mine.

This year I am going to try a roll of mulch. Better than the plastic my Mom layed down to discourage weeds, help the ground retain moisture and heat, my roll is silver and will also deter some types of pests. Woo-hoo! It is my first time trying it, but at only $17 a roll to cover my whole garden, it sounds worthwhile.


Last year I spent more time fighting with the weeds than tending to my plants. This year I hope that changes. I have high hopes that not only will we be swimming in tomatoes and basil this year (those are easy for me to grow), but we will also have plenty of eggplant and salad greens to get us through the warm months.

After our seeds were safely in dirt, it was time to water them. Little girl was in awe of the watering system in the greenhouse. Daddy could even control exactly where it rained!

So what do you have planned for your garden this year? Trying anything new?