Getting ready for gardening!

Now that March is here, temperatures are beginning to warm up (on an inconsistent basis). With my birthday at the end of February, I was able to receive some gardening tools, including gloves, a trowel with inches marked on the spade, MiracleGro, a gardening hose nozzle with adjustable settings, some seed packets, a few hoes (of the gardening utensil variety), and a neat little pronged jabby-thing that I have no clue what it's called (but seems to be quite useful in jabbing it in the ground and breaking up the soil and tearing weeds out).

In addition to all of this, I also got to go to the Cincinnati Home and Garden Show. They had some absolutely AWESOME gardening displays there. I could walk around that place all day. I got way too many ideas for my own good and — after a trip to Meijer — stocked up even more.

Now, I'm armed to the teeth with seed packets and ambition. I have grand plans to turn a 20'x15' plot in our back yard into a thriving Victory Garden, but my enthusiasm usually wanes around June, when the temperature starts to bubble up even higher and watering becomes more of a chore than it was in the previous month. Then, weeding starts to slip its way onto the to-do list, as does pruning and general upkeep. By the time things are ready for harvest, I usually have a completely overgrown area, with no visible path in between the rows of plants, and it ends up being more work than what it's worth to go in and pick the harvest.

This year, though, I've done research, taken garden measurements, stocked up on seeds (even read through the information on the back of them this time!), and have a seed-starting kit that was a birthday present from my sister (can't wait to use it!). I'm already foreseeing many trips to The Home Depot (got a Home Depot card from my other sister and her husband, too). I can even get a 5-gallon dogwood tree from there for a discounted price, thanks to the stub of my Home & Garden Show ticket.

So, what are my gardening plans for this year? Well, I've got a ton of seeds, and — most likely — not enough space to plant everything. That being said, here's what I've got so far:

Vegetable/Herb Gardening

• Longstanding Cilantro
• Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce
• White Lisbon Bunching Onion
• Red Pontiac Potato
• Grand Bell Mix Pepper
• Small Sugar Pumpkin
• Dark Green Zucchini Squash
• Parris Island Cos (Romaine) Lettuce
• Sugar Snap (Edible Pod) Peas
• Chives
• Scarlet Nantes Carrots
• Anaheim Chili Peppers
• Roma Tomatoes
• Little Marvel Peas
• Jalapeño Chili Peppers
• Spearmint
• Serrano Chili Peppers
• Rosemary
• Peppermint
• Swiss Chard (mixed colors)
• Buttercup Squash

Flower Garden

• Crystal Palace Lobelia
• Columbine (Dragonfly Hybrid Mixture)
• Grandpa Ott Morning Glory
• Lavender (Lavendula vera)
• Sweet Pea (Royal Family Mix)
• Gaillardia
• Iceland Poppy (Meadow Pastels mix)
• Blue Flax
• Scabiosa (House Hybrids)
• Bachelor Buttons (Blue Boy mix and Cyanus Double, Mixed Colors mix)
• 3 packets of wildflower mixtures — Cottage Garden, Birds and Butterfly Mix, and Shade mix
  

I figure that even if I don't plant everything this year — which, I probably won't, seeing as planting everything in those lists would require a lot of time, work, and space — I'll give some a try, see which ones I like, then try out some of the unused stuff next year. After a few seasons of this, I should have a pretty good list of things that work in my area (Zone 5 or 6, depending on how detailed your USDA map is), things that I like growing, what's too much work, what attracts bees, what's hard to keep away from pests, etc.

My end goal is to have a garden (or gardens) that is pretty, productive, and — most importantly — something that makes me want to go outside and spend some time in the dirt.