Winter has been desperately hanging on here this year, but finally, my beds are starting to poke out from the snow. The cold frames are thawed (and no, my attempts to grow food in them through the winter were not successful at all - I think it may be more realistic to see them as season extenders rather than as a possibility for year-round fresh veggies). It seems like we're going to have a cool spring, so I'm not in a huge rush to get the garden started. We still have a good amount of cleanup to do, and I would so love it if this was the year I stayed somewhat on top of the weeds.
I have sorted out the seeds by planting date, and started the first batch of seedlings this past weekend (eggplant and brussels sprouts). The brussels sprouts have sprouted, eggplants haven't. I was planning on starting peppers last weekend but didn't get to it, so hopefully that will happen this weekend. As I mentioned, not in a hurry this year!
Our big plans for this season revolve around planting more fruit trees and berries. We're adding rows of raspberries, blueberries, and elderberries behind the vegetable garden, and need to replace a few of the apple trees that were terminally damaged by Mike's mortal enemy, the fearless deer. I also found a variety of fig that's supposed to be able to withstand cold winters, and we'll be planting a couple of paw paw trees as well. We may also put in a few ornamental trees to follow the landscape design that we had drawn up last summer - since we're going to pick up our tree order at the FedCo tree sale this year I have a strong hunch that there will be quite a few tree impulse buys.
Our landscape design includes some gorgeous ideas for perennial gardens, which we'll be holding off on for another year or so to focus on getting the trees and berries established. We will, though, be ripping out the mess of existing plants that we have surrounding the house (tractor!), which I'm very excited about. I'm also day-dreaming about putting in a perennial shade garden underneath some existing fir trees that we have in a corner of the yard. We're lucky to have full sun in so many places, but I'm wanting to have some shade-loving favorites somewhere near the house. And doesn't a sprawling shade garden tucked in a corner under fir trees sound a bit magical? I've got to let this idea marinate a bit but I think I'd definitely like to include lily of the valley (I know it spreads, I don't really care. We have a lot of space and it smells so lovely), bleeding hearts, and helleborus, and maybe this lovely silver lace black primrose (http://www.gurneys.com/product/silver_lace_black_primrose/shade-plants).
