Mulched & Ready to go!

Well, the garden beds have been turned, peat moss has been added, as well as lots of Starbucks "Grounds for your Garden" - Not only does my garden smell lovely, but it is ready for spring!

I always hate weeding, but I know it needs to be done. What is really ironic, and my father finds the humor, is that, as a kid, I always hated weeding. And now, as an adult, I have a garden, which I love, and self impose weeding.

As I was turning my soil, I was so pleased to find lots of big, FAT worms!! Yay!! Healthy soil!!! I am so glad that I added lots of yummy peat moss for them to eat :o) I hope they will tell all of their friends to come to the feast!!

Next weekend, my good friend Julie is going to come over and help me build an arbor that will live permanently in my garden. My cucuzzi will grow on it in spring, and who knows what will grow for the rest of the year, but at least I'll have a structure that will support my squash better than the trellis I've been using (or at least, that's the plan). Pictures will follow!

Other than cucuzzi, I'm not completely sure what will be growing in my garden this spring. I know I'll have cherry tomatoes in the front yard, along with the herbs, but I really am not sure what is going in the back. I'm thinking carrots, as my "new" item, but other than that, I'm not sure!

More to come!!

Starting the Garden!

Welcome to my Gardening Blog! I am an avid backyard veggie gardener :o) I have a 4 foot by 16 foot plot of land devoted to my veggies. I have been at it for about 2 years now, and have grown a variety of veggies. I have been trying to introduce a new veggie each season - something either unusual to me, or just something that I love and have never grown. I am going to try and chronicle my gardening adventures here, for anyone who might be interetested!

So, it's time to start thinking about planting for spring! I know that I'll be planting cucuzzi, which is a long Italian snake squash. My grandfather loves it, and so I grow it for him each year. He used to grow it in his garden years ago. It can get to be almost a meter long!! Here is a picture from my 2010 growning season - my grandparents were very proud of this squash!!

I have a new tomato to plant this year - called a tommy toe heirloom tomato. I got this seed, as well as my cucuzzi seeds from http://www.onaleeseeds.com/, which is, in my opinion, one of the best places around here to get seeds. Onalee is super nice, and she'll answer any questions you have. Her seeds perform great!

Here's a quick shot of my peat pots so far (not too exciting yet):

I haven't quite figured out what else is going in yet, but I have a bit of time to figure it out!

My winter garden is finishing up. I had a great yield this past winter. I had a few new crops that I had never planted before - cauliflower, sweet potatoes, and rutabegas - super yum! Plus, a few repeats from last winter - cabbage, broccoli and kohlrabi, which did great again this year. I love winter hardy veggie plants, as I don't need to cover them for our mild Florida winters. They do great with our light frosts, and actually, my rutabegas were a bit sweeter, thanks to the frost that we received.