January 10, 2012

Garden Dreamin'

It's that time of the year when the seed catalogs are arriving and we begin pondering over which varieties we'd like to include this year.  We always have our favorites that we put in each year, but we also like to try new vegetable varieties as well.  One of our favorite companies to order from in Seed Savers Exchange in Iowa (http://www.seedsavers.org/) We enjoy perusing their beautiful catalog and have yet to be disappointed in any seeds or plants we've purchased from them. 

We've plans to expand the kitchen garden a bit more, seems like there's never enough room for all the things we want to grow.  Each year we put in a lot of tomato plants and it seems they're taking up more and more room in the garden. 

The new farm will be getting its own garden too, maybe two...one up on top of the hill and one near the house.  There's a great little log building that will be perfect for a garden shed.  Choosing the right site is important, ideally close to a walkway or to the house, so it's convenient to weed, water and harvest when we have spare moments. 

Also this year, we're hoping to improve the fencing around the gardens...in efforts to keep out the two most difficult pests...the Whitetail Deer and the Thirteen Lined Ground Squirrels...both species are cute, but very hard on a garden.  Last year the deer ate the cucumbers and squirrels ate the peas. The squirrels were making a go at the strawberries but we trenched around the beds and buried wire to keep them from digging in...it worked pretty slick!

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