It's ON: Gardening 2012

As I mentioned in my first post here on this blog, gardening is a trial-and-error experience and you can't start learning until you start doing.  Each year that I've gardened on my own has been more valuable than the season before, even if it wasn't more successful than before.  And this year, I'm feeling great about putting my past experiences into action! 

The past has taught me that I need to get digging and adding compost before the day that I wake up with the unquenchable desire to plant. It is just too much to try preparing the beds and planting all in the same day, and if I wait too long to obtain enough compost I'll end up planting without it and regretting it later.  Planting days are coming - and for some plants are already here! - and so I've had February in mind as the month to turn the garden over, smooth things out, and add compost.

I'd been feeling discouraged and even defeated without having found a source of good compost yet this year.  The dairy farm we used to easily get manure from hasn't been returning my calls and though we live in close proximity to a handful of horse stables, the manure is so full of wood chips that it's not so useful for gardening.  But then - SUCCESS!  Someone down the road from me posted in a swap group that she had plenty of manure in her barn ready for shoveling!  I was so THRILLED to shovel it into our truck one day and then into the garden the next.  It came at just the right time and though it feels silly to admit that I prayed for manure - well, I did.  So after 1 hour of loading and 2 hours turning the garden and spreading the manure, I have 1 small garden spot and 1/3 of the large one ready to plant. 

With all this springlike weather, I began to feel like maybe getting an even earlier start on planting but I consulted the planting calendar at www.almanac.com .  Glad I did!  Though it's fine to sow seeds of carrot, radish, turnip, beets, and spinach before March 1, everything else needs to wait another week or two or even three.  That calendar doesn't say much about lettuce seedlings, so I hope to get down to the Athens Seed store to see if they are selling their romaine and redleaf plants yet.  They are a great source for plants, seeds, and gardening supplies and more than other garden centers, I trust that when they are selling it, it's fine to plant it.  The past has also taught me that my soil + horse manure + romaine seedlings from Athens Seed planted at the right time = the biggest, most beautiful, wonderfully productive lettuce garden possible.  Boy oh boy I'm in the mood for salad now!