That’s what it feels like this year. Everything died in the hoop house during the frigid December freezes, and I’ve had a cold/flu for a month, so I haven’t felt like doing anything, but I’m better and things are getting rolling around here…thanks to my gardener daughter Anna. 🙂
She roto-tilled in the clover cover crop on this new plot near the hoop house…
And planted these seeds from the Natural Gardening Company…
Lettuces, spinach, chard, bok choi, beets… can’t wait!!! I thought the seed prices were very reasonable. We’ll see how they perform.
I soaked the beet seeds overnight. Something that was suggested on the seed packet that I’ve never done before, but according to them it will boost the germination.
While Anna did all the hard work, I busied myself starting seeds in flats…
I have several different heirloom tomato varieties that I bought at a Farmer’s Market in Holland, Michigan, and saved the seeds, and I have my special Down to Earth Digs seeds bought from Stacey on Etsy…
Last year we began to convert our large back yard into something productive, a large strawberry bed with 2 fruit trees. We had a pretty good harvest of strawberries, and an overwhelming abundance of cucumbers that I planted under the baby trees. Now we’ve added a new garden space in our back yard. You can see it in the distance…
It really feels a lot like starting all over again from scratch, and everything looks so brown and drab and dreary.
Thank you to Tera, who bought me the beautiful Freesia featured at the top of the post. 🙂 How bright and beautiful, a reminder that soon, very soon there will be color in our gardens again.
Oh…and I did keep the rooster, and I’m calling him Darcy. Thanks to vuchickens for the great suggestion. 😉
Rosemary, Lavender and Thyme 
Best of luck on your new garden! I hope all your hard work pays off. And I’m glad to hear Darcy has avoided the freezer. 😉 Hopefully he continues to live up to his name!
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I hope he does too. 😉
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Love the photo of your flowers!
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Thanks, Sarah. I tried hard trying to get it from the top down and kept getting my toes in the picture. You can still see part of my sock in it, if you look closely enough. 😉
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So excited you are staring your garden… Gives me hope for central WI, ok, no hope. Still have four feet of snow 🙂
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You all have had it really rough this year… but spring is coming… I promise. 🙂
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Ah, you will soon have a beautiful verdant forest of vegetables, and the drabness of winter will be forgotten. I was sooo excited to find a heap of tomato seedlings and a couple of pumpkin growing out of my compost heap. Unfortunately, I think it might be the wrong season for them to be growing… it remains to be seen whether I get anything from them. Glad you kept Mr. Darcy II.
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So, I guess you are heading into your winter about now, or fall?
We had some strange plants grow out of our compost last year. They tasted kind of like a cucumber/cantaloupe mix. The chickens loved them.
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Yes, it is gradually getting cooler, although it can barely be called cool yet. Soon, soon, I tell myself! Funny how seeds grow food that is completely different to the fruit it came out of!
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