Saturday, January 29, 2011

Random Garden Thoughts

I am craving fresh greens.

The kids and I started some herbs (and two flowers) yesterday. Oregano, cilantro, chamomile, thyme, rosemary, lemon balm and lavender. I also started three kinds of lettuce from last year's seeds. We should get the rest of our seeds soon so I will start the tomatoes and peppers in the next few weeks. All of the tomatoes I started from seed last year were unsuccessful (they didn't even make it outside) so I have a new system set up that should work great.

We're going to make a new herb garden in the front yard. I'm excited. I'm also going to do a lot of companion planting this year and am interested to see how/if it works.

Rabbit poop is a great natural fertilizer and I've been dumping it all into the compost heap. Rabbit poop doesn't need to be composted before use, but our compost bin is closer to the door than the garden. I am hoping compost helps the soil this year because I think it was a bit lacking last summer.

Speaking of rabbits, I assumed our doe was pregnant because she and the buck chewed through the plywood cage divider. Nope, not pregnant. As it turns out, she's uninterested in sex. I find this to be completely unhelpful. I had them together for a good chunk of today so we'll see if there are kits in 31 days. I'm doubtful. I tried putting the California buck in with our Flemish Giant doe, but she wanted to kill him. She is feisty and I'm considering having her spayed since she's just a pet.

Anyway, the garden. We will have strawberries this year. Just thinking about them makes my mouth water. I want to plant a couple of grape vines, blackberries and raspberries. All of our fruit trees should produce this year and I'm certain the kids will love fresh plums.

I'm sure I will post more garden details as plans progress. It's going to be a great and delicious growing season.

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