Spring starts in January

Snow is still on the ground, the sky is gloomy-grey with a large dollop of drizzle.  But I just invested in a little bit of hopeful sunshine.  I put in my order for veggies through Territorial Seed Company, a Pacific Northwest-geared company.

Qty	Item #	Description	Price
1	TM901/S	Aunt Molly's Ground Cherry - 1/8 gram	$2.85
1	ON557/P	Guardsman Onion - 4 grams	$5.15
1	MS479/P	Italian Saladini Blend - 4 grams	$4.65
1	LT403/L	Little Gem Lettuce - 1/2 gram	$3.05
1	MS499/S	Miners Lettuce - 1/4 gram	$3.05
1	SW850/S	Perpetual Swiss Chard - 3 grams	$2.75
1	SP779/S	Regal Spinach - 5 grams	$2.50
1	KL361/S	Winter Red Kale - 1 gram	$2.55

Miner's Lettuce (The Atlantic, Mar 2011)

Three lessons learned from last year's vegetable gardening:

1) The garden (and life) is too short for veggies we don't like.  No matter how easy to grow.  That means you, radishes.  You're quick to reach harvest, but not my cup o' tea.
2) Fussy is out.  Tomatoes that require primping and preening, warmth and coaxing in this climate are too much effort for not enough reward.
3) Re-use garden space.  If a spring crop has been harvested, yank it in July and use that space for a fall harvest crop.  Easy peas-y!

Ground Cherries (Smithsonian, Sep 2010)

Ground Cherries, are easier to grow versions of tomatoes for our temperate climate.  I've never grown them before, so we'll see how this goes.

Winter Red Kale will be a Fall crop, which sweetens with the frost.  Yumm.

Miner's Lettuce - high in vitamin C and cold-tolerant, making it possible to harvest year-round.

I'm mainly planting easy-grow greens, which can be plucked for each meal.  I'm lazy about shading things, so I picked out varieties that aren't quick to bolt.

In the meantime, I'm buying greens in the store, but dreaming of later in the year when they're a few steps from the door...