Jumping the Gun...er, the Garden

Even though I grew up on a farm with extensive fruit/veggie gardens, I am a fairly new gardener as an adult. This is my 4th year having an "official" garden, i.e. anything more than a few tomato plants in pots. Each year, my garden would get started much later than I preferred, for a variety of reasons (construction at the house, busy time at work, weather, etc.). For some reason I picked the year with the worst winter, and the slowest start to spring to get my garden moving early!

I think I just missed getting my hands dirty, there is nothing like it, especially when dealing with stress, of which I have had my fair share this last year or so.

So here's what I decided to do. I have a bunch of seeds left from the last few years, so I decided to use up all of the cold weather tolerant ones (or as much as I feasibly could), cover the raised bed with plastic, and see what will happen. I figured if the seeds are done, by starting early I will know earlier and still have time to start a new batch. Trial and error are definitely in my repertoire!

So far I started carrots, radishes, a variety of lettuces and spinach, bunching onions, leeks, peas, bush beans, snow peas and swiss chard. Even though the weather was milder this past weekend, we were due for a few very cold days and even more snow (ugh), so I decided to not water the seeds yet and just cover them. We are due for some warmer weather at the end of the week and maybe even a little rain so hopefully that will help to get things going then.

A big shout-out to my hubby for helping to figure out how best to cover the bed and for helping to secure it with staples/nails on the one end since it was too short to tether with rocks.

The bed is 4x8 and has served us well. I do hope to start some seeds in eggshells again and started saving them to maybe get planted this weekend. They work great for starting tomatoes, zucchini and other plants that just aren't cut out for the cold. Then before planting, simply crush the eggshell in your hand so the roots can work through and the eggs then breakdown and benefit the soil.

Hoping this weekend is warm enough to do some major clean-up in the flower beds (easily fill up the back of our pick-up truck, and then some) and maybe even do some separating of the lilies and bulbs to fill in some other areas.

Have you been able to get out in the garden yet? Am I crazy for trying to start things this early? What are you most excited to grow (and eat) this year?