Spring Fever Arrives

The winter weather is finally clearing away, and this morning I woke up to a lovely spring rain.  The gardening urge is fully rooted in my mind!  I have a lot of house plants for fun, but as renters we never really want to invest a ton of time and $ on landscaping.  Starting over your garden in a new house is never easy, but that didn't stop me from going a bit overboard on my first seed order! 



 My treasure trove arrived a few days ago.  I hear that many seeds can be saved in the freezer, so this should do for a few years, hopefully.






 








In years past I bought whatever seeds caught my eye in local shops.  This year the idea is to plant a few seeds from several different varieties of heirlooms, and hopefully find some that like the hot, harsh summers here in Oklahoma.  Here are the seed trays basking under a nice, big grow light.  This morning there were a few little sprouts.  In all honesty, I am about a month late on starting the tomatoes for our area.  In the height of summer it will be too hot for their fruit production.  Oh well, perhaps some of the cherry tomatoes will have a chance! 

There is still a lot of work to do outside!  This new place has acerage, and a few garden beds already, but we need to order a truckload of fertile soil or compost ASAP!



At our last place, when we lived near Dallas, my husband and Dad helped me put together this convenient cinder block raised bed.  



Pro: easy construction, modular, sturdy, the dog approved!

 Con: Slugs loved the areas inside the blocks, the cement got super heated in summer! 

I really want to build a hugelkultur or keyhole raised bed!  I hear they both do well in climates with harsh summers.