Startin' the Garden...

EIGHTY FIVE DEGREES today, folks. 85. Degrees. In April. In Chicago.

60 and 50s this week.

I'll still take it.

This is what we do when we have 50s and 60s...

So you know I am awful at cleaning up the garden in the fall. EVERY YEAR. And every spring I claim I will not put it off that fall. And then I do put it off.









 I also claim every year that I am going to get grow lights and actually get my act together with growing seedlings in the basement. And then I don't grow anything.

So my garden boxes are a wreck of sorts - patypan squash that are dried out and like little paper lanterns. Holiday yard decorations that normally live behind the garage on top of weeds. 

Yikes.

And the lovely RATS (Yes, Rats) that plagued us last summer prompting me to abandon my love of spending time outside got into and ate a ton of my seeds that I had saved from last year's bounty.

Where was this guy last summer? Maybe he could have been a mouser...er, ratter.

Shaking it off and getting ready for a new, awesome growing season. Planted some lettuce (Black-seeded Simpson and Romaine) and put in some onion sets, then started a bunch of seeds in my homemade cold frame. Hoping for the best on those little guys.

Lettuce...Onions...

Grow, grow, grow!!!

Cherry tree has a few buds, as do the lilac bushes and the raspberries.  

Strawberries are coming out among the weeds that have gone unchecked for months. 

Hoping the sad grape vine will do ok this year...Strawberries here are going to be moved...Once I clear out these weeds...Yikes.

Yowza!

Chives are out and about and growing like crazy, as are my hyacinths. Rhubarb came up!

Buds on everything!

`

As we are hoping to move some time this year (possibly summer) I have been thinking of ways to make the garden somewhat portable in case we move mid-season. I will likely end up just transplanting everything as best I can. However, I have already pulled up 2 of my raised boxes from the back of the garden and may put a plywood base on them and put them up on a stand. In the space in that back corner I may finally put up the sunflower room I have wanted to do for a few years, but never quite got to it... I think a moss floor surrounded by a wall of sunflowers would be fabulous for hiding out in the summertime (For me AND the kids) (And probably the dog, too!)

 What are YOUR garden plans this year? Anything new and exciting?