The Garden

It's obviously building, the creeping need to dig in the dirt and to not be trapped within the walls of the house. I just spent some minutes watching a few different episodes of Gardening by the Yard on hgtv. Host Paul James can be a little silly but it's evident that he loves plants, sees more to the garden than "landscape" and is committed to organic and natural gardening. This morning's topics included rose care, starting and using veggie seeds, Paul's raised veggie bed project and some other plant stuff, like showing off a somewhat rare dward pine named . I really enjoyed his raised bed segment. He presented them on the show last fall, building them and doing soil preparation. This "spring" he's harvesting early lettuce and is planting tomato plants. I assume he tapes a year in advance, b/c I can't imagine it being warm enough in OK to do that now. My mom built and planted 2 raised beds last year. I used the truck to haul the soil, a mix loam and sand and topsoil. As an extension of the kitchen remodel, a big task for me will be to take down the old wooden tower in the back yard. Furthermore, I'm thinking about building 2 raised beds in that spot. My one concern is whether there is enough light to really support veggie cultivation given the backyard's northerly facing direction. I love gardening in general, and see veggie and small fruit production as an extension of that. Last year's first attempt at tomatoes failed, but that was my error. The pot didn't drain properly so the plant died of root rot. Live and Learn is the motto of every gardener, and I certainly learned from that lesson.