When winter ends...

[bookworm]

In the spirit of waking up BnS, here's a topic for you. Warm weather! As I get older, I sort of despise the cold more and more... What are your Spring/Summer plans? Are you going to grow a garden? Any goals or projects you'll be working on?

[5ft Diva]

Oooh, love the question! I would love to grow a garden, but don't know if I should this year. Lots of work and not a lot of time. We have a year of vacations. Spring Break we're going to Bear Lake, shortly after that I'm spending three days down at Women's Conference at BYU - sooooo excited for that, during the Summer we'll probably go to Bear Lake again and we have a trip planned for Brian Head, then we're going away for Thanksgiving - Jonathan's parents are going to rent a lodge for a couple of days to celebrate their 50th. WOW! We really are busy this year w/ vacations - maybe that garden needs to be something a little more manageable like a container garden.... I'm also interested in doing fun things w/ the kids - a project all in itself. How about you, BW? What are you going to do?

[Dia Minha]

We are planning a quick trip down to Arizona in July and a longer family vacation for August to the Oregon coast.

Yes, we are planning on a garden. I hope this year I don't lose my enthusiasm and can actually harvest what we plant. I'm going to try corn again this year, because it failed last year. Usually I try something new each year, but want to figure corn out, because we love it so much.

Other than that the kids have Scout camps and Young Women's camp and so it will be a very busy summer.

Yea, Bookworm, what about you?

[Erudite]

Dia, I found the secret to corn is consistent and plenty of water. My first two crops here failed as well until I got the water right. Now I grow enough corn to have it off the cob a couple of times and use for Fall decorations (just the cobs, not the stalks) and then it is dehydrated, so I pull the kernals off and grind them for corn bread throughout the winter.

My gardening goal this year is to learn how to do broccoli right! I've grown some wonderful broccoli and just when I see that it is wonderful...the next day, I swear it goes to seed, so I don't get any harvest. So I'm going to work to get it off the stalk and preserved (planning on freezing it).

It's almost time for peas to go in the ground!

[bookworm]

I totally want to do a good garden this year. I've taken a few years off and let DH do the garden, and it hasn't been what I wanted it to be. I think I'll take it back this year. I want to grow tons of tomatoes, a pile of cucumbers and peppers and squash, but first, sugar snap peas for my daughter and broccoli, lettuce and carrots! I love putting in that first cold crop of the year, before the weeds start wreaking havoc back there. I have all these visions of a beautiful, organized garden, and I'm disappointed every year. I usually don't have much $ to spend and mulch is costly, trellises are, too, and my skills and time are VERY limited. But I'm going to give it a go this year and hope for better things.

Since the gopher ate all my flowers from my front flower bed (ahem!), I will plant pumpkins there, I think. They can vine all over and be messy and it won't interfere with any other garden plants. I wish I had my yard from Grantsville here... I had an enormous garden there... two of them, actually.

I grew corn in Grantsville and they did great, but we had VERY fertile soil (the prior owners had a horse) and it was delicious. We haven't felt like we have room here, so I haven't tried, but I love fresh corn, so maybe one of these years. I could just plant it all along the back fence and let the grass around it grow wild, but that would be messy!

DH wants to go camping, which we will likely do at least once, since Disneyland is off the table for the moment (DH had to spend our tax return $ to buy a newer commuter junker, since his is on its last legs), but the kids have camps and Youth Conference and personally, I have a few things to figure out. If I don't get a job (mine ends at the end of May), I will either: take a couple of classes since I'm still enrolled at the U and still qualify for financial aid, or try out for the local summer production of "The King and I". I am undecided, but I have to make my mind up quickly because auditions are the end of this month. I'm leaning toward the education-- it's what I really need, and though I love performing, that show isn't high on my list of favorites I want to be in, so I will likely do the college thing. Unless I get a job.

I also HAVE to get some writing done. I have been going crazy not having time to really write, so I hope I will have some in the mornings while the kids sleep late. That would be ideal.

I think we need to have a BnS get-together or two as well, but I don't want to be in charge of planning and execution...

[Erudite]

BW, a quick and cheap trellis is concrete webbing. It's a strong wire grid with the wires about 5 inches from each other. You find it with the cinder blocks and concrete at home depot. Then just put a post of some kind in and attach the grid with zip ties. I have them for green beans and peas and cucumbers, and we made a circle out of them for tomatoes and cucumbers. They have lasted 3 years now and I'm planning on using them again this year. Tomato cages can be so cheap that you have to buy them new every year and half the time they're not strong enough to hold a really big tomato plant. The Concrete grid works well!

I want to do sugar snap peas this year! I love them but have never grown them. Any tips?

We were thinking about going to Washington for a family reunion, but our 14 yo ds is having back surgery so that's what we'll be doing this summer.

[bookworm]

Thanks for the tip, E, we will definitely go give that a look! Good luck with DS' surgery!!