Spring Garden Dreams

As I look out over our winter wonderland, snow, cold temperatures, icicles on the laundry line and branches, grasses leaning over with ice, icicles on the brown oak leaves, my thoughts go to the vegetable garden, and what surprises and joys spring will bring.

Late winter is the time of year to plan what and how you will garden. I start by reading and dreaming over the seed catalogs. I especially look forward to those luscious summer tomatoes and stealing one to eat right in the garden with juice running down my chin! But then, there are also cucumbers, zucchini, asparagus, Swiss chard, kale, lettuce, radishes, beets, carrots, onions, garlic, cilantro, parsley, herbs, and on and on.

The summers where we live are especially hot, and springtime is windy. So, the weather is a major consideration when planning the garden. I use raised beds because our ground is very rocky. We also have a drip irrigation system on timers, which conserves water and maintains even soil moisture, very helpful in our heat. Every year I try something I have not grown before. This year, for example, I am going to intersperse flowers between the vegetables. Seedling trays have already been prepared in the potting shed, just waiting for seeds; to produce tomato, eggplant, and jalapeño pepper seedlings for transplant.

There are many gardening styles, depending on geographic areas and whether you are container gardening on an apartment balcony, have the luxury of multiple garden beds, or something in-between. Carrots can be grown in deep pots. Bags of topsoil can be turned into small garden beds by punching holes in the bottom of the bag for drainage and cutting a rectangle out of the top plastic; voila! Now you can plant. There are also examples of gardening vertically where one has small spaces. Gardening books, magazines, and seed catalogs all have plenty of visual examples for your garden.

A word about my favorite vegetable – tomatoes – some do better in one part of the country (or world) than in another. Sometimes it is just trial and error until you hit on the right tomatoes for your gardening environment. My “dream” book is “Heirloom Tomatoes” by Amy Goldman. The photographs are luscious, and the descriptions of the tomatoes very helpful in choosing what to plant. My favorites are the large, juicy ones, Virginia Sweets, Giant Belgium, Costoluto Genovese (the beautiful ribbed one in the photos), and Black Krim. This year I will try some patio tomatoes in pots to give to friends with limited space.

One word of caution. If you live in an area where deer browse close to your house, or you have problems with other animals (squirrels, rabbits, cats, etc.), you will need some protective covering/netting/fencing around your plants.

So, get to work, dreaming about spring, studying seed catalogs, and looking forward to getting your hands a little dirty playing in the soil. Some research shows that “dirt work” helps people become more relaxed and happier!