Old Man Winter seems to be crabby this year. It’s like the never ending season. The Midwest is getting snow. The South is getting rain. Sunshine is sporadic and the pollen is covering all of North Carolina. Washing away the pollen is the only good reason for the rain! But, in my opinion, winter can shove it. I came back from a recent jaunt to the beach with a Florida style tan and I am running with it. I’m moving forward even if the weather isn’t.
Spring is for flowers; for blooming and planting. I can’t really say I have a green thumb, but I do love the idea of growing something. My dad is from the farmlands of Iowa, so maybe it’s in my genes (I hope)! A few years back I invested in a Tower Garden, which, according to their website is a vertical, aeroponic growing system. It allows you to grow up to 20 vegetables, herbs, fruits and flowers. It’s a system that works without soil and takes up less than three square feet of space. My type of gardening.
The kids and I planted lettuces, herbs, and vegetables and it was the talk of the backyard for everyone who came by. It was amazing to watch it grow each week until we were plucking off the lettuces and tomatoes for our salads. By mid -summer I had more cucumbers than I knew what to do with so my daughter and I canned them. We didn’t get that fancy so we just made refrigerator dill pickles. They weren’t the type that can last in your pantry all year, but they were delicious. It was a fun project to do with her and great little gift that all the grandparents loved!
This year, I’m at it again. The sun is not out, but the tower garden set up and already blooming. Here’s to hoping the weather cooperates soon and my spring planting is not all for naught.
But, I decided to up my game this year and try to garden in an actual raised garden bed. It’s ambitious and it might be a complete disaster. I’m hoping raccoons don’t come and eat it. But it would be wonderful if it actually worked… even if I only get a carrot out of it! I put my dad, Farmer Ed, to work and he created this beautiful bed for me. I love it, but then I got super nervous and stared at it for a few weeks, wondering what I had gotten myself into.
I finally took the plunge and came up with a plan of attack. I spent way too much money at the nursery, and probably bought too many vine varieties (zucchini, squash, cucumber) that might come back to bite me.
I planted a variety of things, peppers, beans, tomatoes, herbs, cabbage…I didn’t even know what some things were! What exactly is a bush bean, anyway? Let’s hope I find out. The only seeds I planted were for the carrots. Somewhere on google, it said to plant one tiny seed every quarter of an inch. Mama had to get to the bus stop, so I just planted all the seeds in a row, thinking the likelihood that any of them will grow is pretty low. Go big or go home right?
So there you have it… summer goals include sunshine and summer vegetables. It’s just another way of creating simple wonder (well maybe not that simple). For the record, my kids might eat, like, one of these vegetables. We are far from perfect over here. My goal is to get them to try three and have them help me water! We can all dream. Wish me luck!
For information on purchasing a Tower Garden please email Lisa at LLHunt79@gmail.com