There should really be a photograph with this post

but rather than taking my camera out in the morning when I head into the garden, I've been focused on the much more important task of berry picking.

There's something intensely satisfying about the juicy thud that a raspberry makes when it's dropped into a large yogurt container. Also the glow of the red berries when the morning sun touches them through the leaves... like poetry to my eyes. I love picking berries. It's my latest just for me thing to do. I head out before the husband leaves for work and fill a container with those enticing ruby red treasures.

I also annihilate a few slugs, pull up a few weeds, pick some pees and disturb the ants that have decided to make the strawberry plants their home base. It's satisfying and I get to feel like I've gotten something good done at the start of the day since the Bean is still a big time napper.

I'm keenly looking forward to the wild blackberries at the end of our street to ripen...

Fingers crossed I'll take the camera out and shoot a few of those berries before they fill up my bucket

Planting and Eggs

We started working on the garden this weekend. What better way to observe Ostara and the first day of spring than to wake up the earth in our garden and sow some seeds for planting next month? Oh yeah and the eggs, we coloured some eggs and decorated the window with some tissue cherry blossoms.

So, what will we have in our garden? Onions, carrots, potatoes, broccoli, lettuce, parsley, basil, thyme, rosemary, peas raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. We are also trying our hand at a pumpkin and a watermelon and the Peanut grabbed a packet of Velvet Queen Sunflowers which will be adorning the small plot in front of the front steps because; as she said, we have to have flowers!

Now we have to start planning where everything is going to go... I've taken some books out of the library which have been helpful and not so helpful. My next step has been to see how other people do it. I'm wanting to go as green as possible, using companion planting and natural ways to help discourage pests. It's a little daunting when there is so much to learn and so little time to pick it all up. I've been reading this great book called Eat More Dirt by Ellen Sandbeck. It's full of advice and suggestions and reads like a magazine article in book form which is my way of saying that it is full of personal anecdotes and fun little illustrations and tidbits. As far as planning the garden goes, I came across a link to this site called GrowVeg.com that we are thinking of using to set everything out. I read about it on Flicker's Lair's blog.
in her post she also mentions a few books she finds indispensable and I'll be looking for them in the garden section of our library to check out too.

Next week we continue the celebration of the beginning of spring with chocolate and an egg hunt or two. Any chocolate in your future? what about gardening? Am I the only garden virgin out there this year?

Thousand Words