garden daydreaming

Yes, I know..... it's only February, and we have plenty of cold, wintry days ahead of us before it's really time to start planting.  BUT, this beautiful weather has me dreaming of garden plans.  Last year we had a small garden and it was tended to fairly well considering all the tending to Claire that was also happening.  I will say that it was easy to tell how our day or week had been going by looking in the garden and seeing what state it was in!

At the end of the season we (by "we" I mean Mike...you know how this is sometimes, right?  The "we" of a marriage that can sometimes mean a collaborative effort but often means one or the other?) built 2 raised beds and planted some garlic.  We also purchased 2 more apple trees, 2 fig trees and some strawberry plants that, by the end of the season had nearly quadrupled in number by sending off so many sprouts from the original 8 plants.  The plan is to build at least 4 more raised beds, with one being dedicated to strawberries, perhaps another to other perennials (asparagus maybe?) and a couple more for our vegetables.  It was obvious after our gardening efforts last year that our soil is in need of some love and care and chicken poo.  I'm planning a new composting system for our yard, since Wolfie is ever so interested in the now full existing bin and certainly will only become more so once the chicken poo starts to get incorporated, and because our pile of rotting leaves is growing, growing and because we just need a better system in place.  One that will allow us to more easily turn the piles into each other and so forth. Having the raised beds will of course allow us to more easily amend the soil and keep things somewhat tidy in the process.  I'm thinking it may be a good thing for me to have to limit myself somewhat in what I plant as well since I'm pretty bad about planting way too much most years.  How many squash plants do we really need?  Probably just one, not 6 or 7.

garlic poking up through the snowy leaves

Mike scored/saved a potting table from one of the training burns with the fire department and that will soon be spruced up as well.... a home for all of my wayward pots and trays and gardening whatnots.

Oh, the joy of going through seed catalogs and planning out the possibilities!  It certainly will help get me through some of the drearier February days ahead~

Happy garden dreaming~