A Bit O' Green!

Memories of last year...it won't be long, now!

Just a part of last summer's vegetable garden...

Quite enjoyed the nice horse poo we fed it....

and rewarded us with a bountiful crop of beautiful food!
What could be more rewarding?

*

The past several days, we were blessed with warm temperatures (high fifties, to low seventies!) and warm sunshine. The week preceding this was cold with lots of drenching rain, so when we found ourselves out in the yard Sunday afternoon with rakes and wheelbarrows, the ground was moist and generous with its deep scent of that lovely, fresh DIRT aroma.

WHAT A JOY to feel the dirt under my fingernails again and to see small sprouts of green coming up through the dirt to greet us as we pulled leaves and winter debris from their beds! (Somehow, I think we'd ALL be healthier if we got dirtier!)

WHAT A HAPPY soundtrack for us to work by: the sound of the birds overhead in the giant maple tree, cheering us on as they'd watch for an opportunity to swoop down for a meal of fresh worm or squirming bug.

All this sunny, warm weather (even though we're going to get slammed with more snow storms and cold, blustery weather) has got us thinking about the garden and what to add or take away this year.

We always have a nice sized strawberry patch, some rhubarb, and four generous rows of raspberries. From that we reap a yeild far above what we can actually use, even after sharing with friends and neighbors. Last June, we slightly chopped the strawberries and tossed them with a scant 1/4 cup sugar, and froze them in quart-sized ziplocs. OHMYGOODNESS, they taste like FRESH when we've pulled them out this winter. We will very definitely do this again! We still have an abundance of raspberries, strawberries and have been eating them all winter long. I have more jam and have shared generously with that, too! I'm thinking I may have to start selling it!

FOR OUR HUGE SALSA/TOMATO APPETITE:

3-4 kinds of peppers plus the hot ones

3-4 varieties of tomatoes

onions (what fun it was to grow them! And, we had enough leftover to put in our cold pantry that I just used my last one over the weekend!)

Cilantro

FOR USING AND PRESERVING:

Peaches & Cream sweet corn (stagger planting so it's not all done at one time)

green beans (stagger planting)

zuchini (yes, we plant one hill and always have too many, want some?!)

yellow squash (OH YUM!)

butternut squash to use fresh and to freeze

pumpkins (as many as I can squeeze in! LOVE those in the fall to decorate with and give away!)

cabbage

picklers

cantelope

watermelon (if there's room)

NEW THIS YEAR:

red potaotes

more chickens (I hope!)

Now...answer me one question, if you would.

WHAT KIND OF POO DO YOU FEED YOUR GARDEN AND WHY?