Spring has Sprung!

Well it's definitely spring time in Jersey, it's going to be in the 80s next week...  I went ahead and took an inventory of what's popping up - other than a ton of Lamb's Quarters - UGH!

We have tons of scallion that Jared has been cultivating

They're pretty huge - I thought they were the leeks we planted years ago. We also have some pretty mint weed that been taking over one side of the yard. Jared believes it's Creeping Charlie.

And of course we can't forget about our Dandelions

Personally I love the way the yellow and the purple looks together, since they are complimentary colors  it's obvious they would be compliments in nature

On the other side of the yard we have a couple of our veggies coming in, here are Collards, Spinach and Kale

Our Asparagus is also doing pretty well. This is the year we can finally harvest them - yay!

Our herbs also did pretty well. We have some Sage 

and Oregano.

Let's not forget the rogues, here is some Lemon Balm that sprung up in an unexpected spot

and a Kale that popped up in the yard.

And of course we can't forget the Catnip that Lola found!

Signs of Spring!

Although it's snowing in Metuchen right now, yesterday I was able to snap a few pics of the first sign of spring -

CROCUSES!

Yes boys and girls our first Crocuses are peeking through. This warms my heart especially during such a long snowy winter.

Crocuses are really cute little flowers. If it wasn't such a pain to plant them I would have them covering our front yard. Since most need sunny spots, we would have to plant them in the backyard instead and that's already been done for us. Our larger patch in the backyard still hasn't come up but when it does I am hoping it's bigger and better than last year.

Waiting for the Snow to Melt

So while I wait for the snow to melt, or not, before I plant my early spring garden – target date March 19th!

Backyard - January 27, 2011

I really wanted to do it on St Patrick’s day but that’s a Thursday and I’m not planting in the dark – been there and done that! I have decided that I need to detox. So on Tuesday I started with some fruit, a seaweed salad and a juice: Spinach, carrot, apple and ginger. Yesterday more fruits, smoothies and peas and beans made up the day. Today it was smoothies, beans with buckwheat and hopefully something justa as good for dinner. Hopefully I can keep this up – I am looking to cut out caffeine, gluten, soy, added sugar & alcohol. The big toughies will be gluten and alcohol as I love my bread and wine. It's only for a few days this time, if it works it might be my Monday - Friday diet.

In order to help me along this journey I have purchased 2 raw uncook books:

The Complete Book of Raw Food, Second Edition: Healthy, Delicious Vegetarian Cuisine Made with Living Foods (The Complete Book of Raw Food Series) by Julie Rodwell (Editor), Victoria Boutenko (Contributor), Juliano Brotman (Contributor), Nomi Shannon (Contributor), Mary Rydman (Contributor)

AND

Raw Food for Everyone: Essential Techniques and 300 Simple-to-Sophisticated Recipes by Alissa Cohen (Author) & Leah J. Dubois (Author)

I haven’t gotten them yet but am looking forward to trying them out. As soon as I can leave the house, of course.

Time to think about the new garden

Yep it's that time of year. Even though I sit in my office freezing my tukhus off at the kid's desk I use, I have my mind on SPRING!

Last year's garden was quite a bust and I will take full responsibility for that. We had a couple of traumatic events and a mini drought without a hose was the icing on the cake.

Well now we are armed with great books thanks to Mom & Dad H.

A great resource for anything veggie gardening related including: planning; composting; pests and a crop guide to all your favorite veggies.

And of course in this day and age gardening on the cheap is definitely a must! This book includes tons (about 400!) of tips on saving money and more importantly, resources while you garden.








One way I am saving money is by saving seeds. Over the past year I have begun saving the seeds of our favorite store bought organic vegetables. If I see something that looks good I will keep the seeds, clean them and let them dry. I will then store them in containers in the fridge.

Right now we have saved seeds from:

Kentucky Wonder Beans
Collards
Patty Pan Squash
Sweet Peppers: Green, Purple & Yellow
Sunflowers - of course!
Decorative Pumpkins that will go in the front yard - yippee!
Calabaza or Edible Pumpkin
Asian Foot Long Beans
Ugly Tomatoes
Oregano
Butternut Squash

 

BUT we still have seeds left over from last season too:

Black Beauty Eggplants
Sweet Banana Peppers
Peas
Tomatoes: Oxheart. Black Krim and Roma
Radicchio
Lettuces: Romaines, Black Seeded and Green Oak
Celery
Cucumbers
Zucchinis
Turnips
Spinach

Seed Drawer

And my ultra-fabulous friends have gifted us organic Cucumber, Tomato and Squash seeds too! They also gave us really cute garden stakes.

The only thing I am missing is Kale - now we have two Kale plants in the house, I am thinking of letting them go to seed so we can plant those. If it doesn't work no biggie, we can get seeds.

Oh boy! I don't know if it's from the cacao nibs in my morning smoothie or thinking about the garden, I am ready to start right now! How exciting!!