Dreaming of Spring

Or at least of temperatures above freezing.

If I could knit, I would sooooo make this for you, MamaPea.

I won't bore you with yet another blog story about how freaking cold it is.  You are probably already painfully aware of that fact.  I did, however, want to let my Mom know that we opened up the barn for Ms. Melman and Nugget (and they still refuse to go in there), that I put a ton of bedding in the goat barn and opened it up for them (where it is normally reserved for kiddings), and ALL of the chickens are in the big coop side, together, snuggling as much as chickens can snuggle.  And, much to Paul's dismay (I love you honey, please don't divorce me), Outside Kitty has been allowed inside the house temporarily.

Being stuck in the house, I've been on the computer a lot and started searching for anything spring-like or gardening-related for some eye candy and to take my mind off the fact that my feet are freezing even in socks and fuzzy pink slippers.  I clicked through enchanted gardens, rock gardens, desert gardens, gardens with sculptures, gardens with cats (imagine that) and garden plans.  They look so perfect, so organized, so wonderfully neat and tidy:

Then there's MY garden plan:

I've got my Baker Creek catalog dog-eared and post-it noted, inked up and generally abused.  Trying to figure out what "New and Improved" something or other I'm going to plant.  Even though I have a bunch of seeds from years gone by, seeds saved this past year, and seeds given to me by friends.

I'm also seriously debating just purchasing the old standbys (Roma/Rutgers/Beefsteak tomatoes, California Wonder Peppers, some sort of cabbage) at the nursery down the road, or, if I'm lucky at the Baker Creek site up in Missouri if it's early enough in the season.  I don't have a lot of dedicated area for growing seedlings and although I'd be saving money to grow my own, I just don't have the patience for anything except hard to find vegetables.  Melons, squash, pumpkins, beans, peas and cucumbers I've had decent success just direct sowing them so I'll continue that route with them.

I've been composting just about everything our livestock can squeeze out their backsides and I'm putting piles of wasted hay in the new garden plot that Paul dozed for me last spring.  In the summer I dug holes in that garden with the tractor auger, filled the holes with compost and put in a few dozen summer and winter squash seeds and didn't get jack from it.  The plants grew to a certain stage, flowered and started to fruit, but the fruit were teeny-tiny.  Not sure if the "soil" is just so crappy (i.e. not so much dirt as it is rocks) or if it was just a bad squash year as I heard other gardeners complain about.  But we managed to get decent garden beds in the Berry Garden after three or four years of constant composting additions so I figure this new garden will just take a while.  But of course, in the interim, I will continue attempting to plant something, anything in there.  And I suppose if the plants don't thrive, if they die, or the seeds just rot in the earth, at least it's adding to the overall soil-building plan.  And one day - hopefully before I'm dead - we'll have another thriving garden plot.