It’s probably no secret by now that I am really starting to get a bit stir crazy about starting some seeds and getting our garden going. But there’s still some ground work that has to be done first. We need to boost up the soil in our beds in the courtyard and get them ready for planting. And we have to assess what is happening in our garden behind the barn so that I can get some things in the ground back there. In particular, I’m planning to start with onions and possibly carrots back there…but I’m pretty sure there’s some weed clearing that needs to be done first.

And at some point, there are some much larger projects for back there. But first things first…get the square foot system grid set up. And then get food growing in the ground! Because I’m convinced by all the stuff I’ve read about square foot gardening so far, that it will definitely help us out in the long run as far as keeping the beds full, productive and weeded goes.

Last weekend, we went and bought some motivation for me to get my hands dirty:

What’s with all the carrot seeds, you ask? Mackenzie (our 3 year old daughter) is a carrot junkie! Especially when they’re fresh out of the ground and washed in rain water. 🙂 And as a mother, I’m certainly not going to deny my child fresh veggies on demand! So lots of carrot seeds it is. I just need to make sure I stagger the planting of them a bit so we’ve got them coming in succession…and the great thing is that we now have early-, mid- and late-season carrot varieties. So the first of these seeds can already start going in the ground!

And for those that remember the carrots I had in the ground over the winter…well, they did not like the 14 days of -18°C temps AT ALL. But I pulled one up the other day and there is still a bit of green on the tops and they may start growing again I think. At the moment, they look a lot like pencils. But apparently they taste awesome because Mack devoured the test carrot before I could even turn around twice.

Onion bulbs will also be going in the ground…because I discovered last year that there are few things easier than growing onions! Put them in the ground and leave them be…my kind of gardening. 😉 I was also hoping to get some organic garlic bulbs to start (since these are two things which are definitely good for planting here in Germany at this time of year) but I had no luck. I do seem to recall that our friends actually gave us some garlic seeds last year, though, so I think I will try planting those and see what happens.

I also decided to bring our strawberry plant in the hanging basket inside the house. I don’t know why I didn’t just do it earlier, but I think it had something to do with lacking space. At some point, maybe I’ll even have Stefan put up a hook for this to see about extending the growing season. There were still berries on it until about November last year.

But it’s now putting on lots of new growth, so it will hopefully be raring to go in the next couple of months which will thrill Mackenzie since she’s also a fresh strawberry junkie. It could be worse, right? 😉

Oh, and I’m thinking about what sort of bins would be ideal to start seeds in…in a true gardener fashion where you just plant the seeds in a big flat and then cut the soil up and transplant everything when ready. I thought about doing this in our salad table in the past, but it doesn’t stay warm enough yet. And I’ve got to start some seeds soon or we’ll be buying hybrid plants again. Which are better than nothing, but doesn’t help me use up all my seeds!

So that’s where we stand right now with our garden. What’s going on in your dirt? 

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