WOO WOO!

Okay, I have to confess that we're in the middle of the start of baseline data collection at work, thus I'm pretty much swimming in paperwork, ordering last minute things and generally helping things run smoothly and attempting to take a deep breath.  Pictures are going to be limited until things settle down a bit.  Here's a brief update anyway:

The good news:
From the meeting on Monday, we found out that we got a space in Skidmore Community Garden, and it's one of the big 64 foot corner plots. 

The tomato seedlings are ready to put in the ground, nownownow.

The Wee Tot told me that the garden is her favorite.  Also, that tree that we just passed on our walk?  That's her favorite tree.  And our dog Sally?  That's her favorite Sally.  And I'm her favorite Mommy.  And Daddy is her favorite Daddy.

The bad news:
 It would appear that I have a penchant for wanting climbing and viney things, and in my mental garden, I'm quickly running out of vertical space.  And we're not allowed to put up trellises in the community garden.  So I'm going through my seeds and seedlings and trying to decide what will have to be planted where, and what gets shelved for this year to be planted next year.

It's threatening to snow this weekend, thus putting off all of my plans for cleaning up the driveway garden and the new community garden.

But hey, you know, that's what you get this time of year in Minnesota.  At least I have broccoli seedlings in the ground, and kale, swiss chard, peas, carrots and lettuce planted in the square foot garden (we'll be covering the broccoli seedlings this weekend...)

Speaking of square foot gardens and gardening in small spaces,  here's some cool info:

1.) The square foot gardening website the guy's book has some good info, but his language bugs the hell out of me in ways that I can't fully explain.  Still.  Focus on the info.  Goooood info.

2.) Veggies by the Yard. Similar concept, different design and really cool plans for gardens closer to the space we'll be planting in (at least along the driveway and in the community garden)

3.) A coworker reminded me of this traditional companion planting (corn, squash and beans). If you have limited space, but have a good sun for corn, why not grow squash and beans too? A little more info with diagrams!

I am alive

Winter threatened to kill all hope of spring, thus sucking my will to live for a while there...on top of last minute scrambles for my grad school application, which is why there hasn't been an update for a while.

HOWEVER!  We're (almost) back on track.  We worked in the yard and practically lived outside all weekend and yes, there are pictures as soon as I can convince the toddler who likes to press buttons to go play with daddy for a while.  I have a better update coming soon, but here's some highlights:


I have a meeting tonight regarding our community garden assignment (WOO WOO).

There's some plans in the works for a large patch of corn in a neighbor's yard.

And I managed to plant kale, lettuce, swiss chard, peas and carrots in the square foot garden on Sunday.

Ry built trellis for morning glories (think I can convince him to also grow scarlet runner beans there?) and is currently working on fencing pieces for his experimental corn patch.