Back in the Gardening Game

It's been about four months since my last post, but before you report me to the delinquent blogger police, please read on. Hubby and I welcomed our daughter to the world in November, and it turns out that tending to a winter garden isn't a priority when there's a newborn nearby. I did manage to take our little girl— who we'll call Sweet Pea for this blog— into the garden with me for two major weeding sessions. She had a blast in our humble plot, and I don't think I imagined that. Situated smack dab in the middle of the garden, Sweet Pea sat peacefully in her bouncy seat, smiled at the arugula and cooed at the towering pine and oak trees. I'm pretty sure she'll weed before she can walk if I keep letting her observe my work in the garden.

The second major development since my last post involves another family member: Oscar the dog. You may remember that Hubby erected a short picket fence around the garden to help our two dogs realize that they weren't needed in that part of the domain. Now Oscar has never been the type of dog to test his boundaries, but this winter he figured out that the fence is plenty short enough for him to hop over. (He probably figured this out in his abundant spare time; "second-class citizen" best describes his new status since Sweet Pea came along.) So Oscar is certainly digging around in the garden, and that's not all he's doing out there, if you know what I mean. A new, taller garden border is now required before we go ahead with our spring planting.

Speaking of, Hubby got a hot tip from Mr. Fox-Smith, executive editor of Country Roads, about the Mother Earth News website, where he found the Vegetable Garden Planner tool. At the moment I don't know the particulars of this resource (busy with baby, remember?), but I can tell you that Hubby is enamored with it. He designed our spring garden online, printed it out and even laminated it. In the pipeline for this next season are tomatoes, okra, banana peppers, cayenne, sunflowers, squash, artichokes, asparagus, lettuce, soybeans, lima beans, and there's more I'm forgetting. He's also planting some tea plants, but that deserves its own blog post. The adventure continues!