Gardening

Only 1 1/2 more months until the average last frost day here (May 9)!!! Okay, really it is 1 and 3/4 of a month but I always plant 1 week before I'm supposed to. I can't stand waiting. 

This year I'm going to do it the right way: I'm going to FINALLY get my soil tested. I've been putting this off for years simply because I couldn't find where to get my soil samples tested. Last year my back garden started getting very unhappy, so this year I am determined to amend the soil with what it actually needs. I found A & L Labs and will send off garden and lawn samples to them this week. Then when I get the results, I'll get what I need and add in my own compost that has been rotting in my garage all winter (there's really not much compost in the garage this year). 

Of course I'll have tomatoes, pepper, cucumber, squash, and zucchini and maybe eggplant (last year it didn't work!), green beans, or watermelon. I'll try to get my soil fixed up and tilled in April. Then I'll get in some spinach and lettuces if I'm really ambitious. Since we like to use a lot of fresh herbs, I'll keep going with all the herbs in the bed beside my patio. I might mix some herbs (borage, dill, dunno what else yet) in with my flower beds as well. Speaking of flowers, I'm planing to transplant a few from the back bed to the front bed but otherwise won't get anything new. Other than some moon flower and cardinal climber seeds and annuals for the front porch pots. 

Of course, all my good gardening intentions seem to wither in the heat of the summer so I love getting a good start in the spring. Deterring weeds has been my main problem (due to laziness and comfortable chairs) so this year I'm going to try to heavily mulch the vegetable garden with newspapers topped with grass clippings, leaves, or pine needles. Any other ideas? I think I just need to actually PULL the weeds and not ignore them. 

Further simplifying gardening this year, I won't be starting any seeds indoors. That's kind of sad but with 2 people living in my tiny house now, there really isn't room for the shelves, lights, heat mats, or containers. Sad:(

I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT REAL TOMATOES!!!!!!