Saturday, January 1, 2011

Scratching the gardening itch

January 1, 2011 At 7 AM in the Pacific Northwest it is still dark. First light has not penetrated the dark of this day of ones. Ray had to get up at 4 AM for work so we did not stay up to welcome the new year. I'm wide awake now and though I am trying to just chill, my head is filled with things I want to do today to celebrate the new year.

The Territorial Seed Catalog is almost committed to memory. My palate is ready to experience fresh greens, peas, spinach and bok-choi. There are at least 6 weeks until I can poke peas and radishes into the cold soil. To scratch my itch for growing things I plan to welcome the new year by making a half dozen paper pots to start lettuce and spinach in. Chris will be building a custom fit cloche for my square-foot-garden. His cloches will allow me to set out my salad starts when the peas go in.

The barbecue wok in the picture will be the home of micro-greens if all goes as planned. I love using the wok for grilled veggies in summer but it just sits in the cupboard taking up space for the rest of the year. I have been resisting using it for greens for a while but the urge to grow food is strong this year. The wok will be lined with a square of landscape fabric and mel's mix (hey, the wok is a square, so surly this counts as square foot gardening) before the seed is sprinkled thickly into soil mix. If the seed is still alive there should be a salad to harvest in two to three weeks.

The rest of Deb's New Year's Day plans

  1. Make paper pots and start lettuce and spinach
  2. Create and start a wok full of macro-greens
  3. Inventory last years seed
  4. Inventory another pantry self
  5. Make pastry for Chris' apple pie (filling in the freezer)
  6. Make clam dip for the guys
  7. Make today's pantry food, "Black Bean Tostadas"
  8. Maybe most important, work on finishing Luke 10 study
  9. If there is any more time to the day, finish the grid for this years garden.

I'm sipping green tea today. One of the three gardening magazines Ray bought me yesterday claims that green tea leaves (or maybe it was the tea? humm) are super food for gardening. Cheer's! The sun is up and day one of 2011 looks to be beautiful.

Happy New Year to you and yours!

3 comments:

  1. Hi Rainsong. Just had to come and visit after you stopped by. I was pleasantly surprised to find you lived in Everett. One of my favorite places as I lived in Lake Stevens for 8 1/2 years growing up. I still have many friends there. You are one busy lady with your growing veggies. We do a tomato and sometimes a zucchini - on a good year. ;-) I was reading your other posts and loved that your garden is your sanctuary. Mine too but more so my greenhouse is my 'mancave.' LOL Sometimes I putter up there for hours. I also love to camp (a tree lover raised mostly on the Olympic Peninsula) and am quite happy staying and camping right here in our own beautiful (if not screwed up) state! Great posts and I'll be back.

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  2. My husband and mom grew up in Lake Stevens. We raised our sons in Robe Valley East of Lake Stevens (and Granite Falls). They are redneck highlanders through and through. Except for Sequim once a year we do not get to the Olympic Peninsula often enough. On Valentine’s Day it is a tossup, ride the Ferry to Friday Harbor or to Winslow and drive up to Point No Point. When we have sun, time and money, we spend the day making the trek to Hurricane Ridge.

    Deborah....can't wait to see what grows in your glass cathedral.

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  3. Growing in a barbeque wok, what a great idea! So neat.

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