Spring (aka pollen) is in the Air

This winter I was busy changing jobs and then planning my garden so I haven't posted in a while. But, now that temperatures are (mostly) rising, its time to get started again. Spring really is my favorite season even though allergies kick my butt every year! I've had many of the same plants come up again this year but here are a few new pictures:














In my ongoing quest to make my gardening efforts go further, I've changed up a few things. First, I traded in the old peat pods for small cow pots filled with potting soil as my method of starting seeds inside. My inner hippy was having trouble with the practice of harvesting peat to make the starting pods so I went for a more eco-friendly option. So far, they seem to be working about the same though the little pots take up a little bit more room. Here are my eggplant sprouts:


I also expanded the cold weather operation onto the front porch in a mini greenhouse of sorts. I can verify that it gets mighty toasty in there. I've actually started to leave it open during the day for ventilation so that it doesn't get TOO hot. Thank you Alex for giving me the idea! As the weather has warmed, different things have moved in and out of the "greenhouse" as they are able to handle the outside world.






Out in the garden, I only have garlic from the fall and snap peas. I really like the trellis design that we've used for a couple of years now. Once again David helped out with the construction while I worked on other projects. My challenge with the peas this year has been a bunny rabbit who thinks that the pea shoots are for him- doesn't he know that they sell them by the bag at the farmers market :)

Another new thing I'm trying out this year is growing squash in pots. We've had horrible luck with growing squash in the past thanks to squash bugs. But David really wanted to grow squash this year so I concocted a plan to grow them in pots (where the soil won't harbor any overwintering bugs) and to cover them with a black plastic of sorts to help keep the bugs out. As they grow, I imagine that I'll only have one plant per pot but I started off with 3 in each to make sure I have enough. Fingers crossed that this will help.