Sometime in January pretty much every year, I start craving spring time and yearning to start planting my garden and seeing flowers and veggies again. And although it is way too early to actually plant anything in the garden, it is a perfect time to plan and dream about what I am going to do when the weather finally says "Now!"
A couple of my favorite gardening experts are Marianne Binetti (www.binettigarden.com) and Ed Hume (www.humeseeds.com). I love to read Marianne's gardening columns in our local paper as she has not only a ton of knowledge about local Pacific Northwest gardening, but gives excellent recommendations for what you can be doing when in the garden, new plants to watch for that are good performers, and a cool sense of humor. I remember one of her columns where she talked about just getting rid of plants that were not thriving and basically said it is really OK - they are not our children; if they won't grow properly than out they go! Nice to have an expert's permission to toss plants that are just disappointing!
And Ed Hume's seed company is a wonderful resource for seeds that will actually grow nicely in our climate! I know when I first moved here from the midwest years ago, I spent several disappointing summers trying in vain to grow things that I knew had thrived in Illinois before I finally got it that the Pacific Northwest was a different place entirely and that I would be much more successful trying to grow the things that do well here.
Ever since reading Barbara Kingsolver's excellent book about eating locally (see her website www.animalvegetablemiracle.com), I have been very motivated to try to do more of that eating locally and in season, whether that means growing more in my own garden or frequent visits to local farms and our local Farmer's Market (www.olympiafarmersmarket.com). I think most everyone would agree that nothing storebought out of season compares with locally grown veggies and fruit - oh oh, now I am craving our scrumptious local strawberries! Got a fairly long wait still until they willl be ready! Back to dreamin'....
Comments(0)