Spring Fling

New Spring craft love -
 watercolor on fabric.
 Post coming soon.

Officially, Spring is still a few weeks away, but the temperature is slowly climbing, the geese are headed north (honking loudly over my house) and the daffodils are peaking through the ground.  In honor of all things Spring-ish, my sister, Teri, is hosting a Spring Fling on her blog today.  She's planning her flower garden, issuing some fun challenges, sharing some craft ideas and generally celebrating Spring.  Check in and join the fun - I promise, you will not be required to do any spring cleaning.

Her first question was "What are you planting?"  I have my garden seed order ready - tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, cantaloupe and potatoes.  In the flower beds, I'm adding sunflowers for a touch of Kansas, which will always be home in my heart.  

My entry for the first Spring Fling challenge - a picture from my garden:

One of my favorites - Marigolds.  Love the variety of colors,
not to mention the fact that even I can't kill them. 

I'm Dreaming of a . . .

No, I'm not dreaming of a White Christmas, though it is snowing here.  I'm dreaming of a green garden, fresh vegetables and beautiful flowers.  My mother used to tell me "Your eyes are bigger than your stomach" when I took a larger portion than I could eat.  When the seed catalogs arrive, my eyes are bigger than our garden.  So, we're making a bigger garden.  The idea is to move the vining crops - melons, squash and cucumbers -  across the fence, staking off a corner of the pasture where we can expand as far as we want/need, and let the rest spread out in the established spot.  

Dave does a little weeding, while Gabby and the girls look on (2012)

This is only our third year of gardening.  The first year was modestly successful, in that we actually got a few things to grow - not bad for beginners.  We learned some lessons and last summer was much more productive.  The second garden taught us additional lessons:  Rabbits will eat your entire pea crop unless you build a fence.  The pepper varieties we planted (twice) and that never showed so much as a sprout, are obviously not suitable for our climate/soil.  Okra grows profusely, but it's all still in the freezer because we only like it deep fried and we've given up most fried foods.  And 36 tomato plants is excessive for two people - one of whom doesn't care for tomatoes.       

                            

We also have plans for other areas of the yard:

photos from Gurneys.com

Raspberries will be planted along the pasture fence, Fragrant Cloud honeysuckle will adorn the trellis on the north end of the house, and a Nugget hops vine will make it's way up the side of the old chicken coop.  The hops is mostly for looks and curiosity, but Dave might even try a home brew.  

The flower beds will have the usual marigolds, petunias and geraniums, as well as some new wildflowers, a replanting of the hollyhocks killed by drought last year (thank heaven I saved some seed), and the most exciting new addition - Strawberry Blonde and Chianti sunflowers.

Images from Burpee. com

We buy most of our garden seed and bedding plants locally, so it remains to be seen if we lose control when we get there and try something new, but that's the plan for now.   What's in your garden dreams?