I Dream of Spring

Oh boy, do I ever have spring fever!  The weather has been lovely, highs in the 50s, and it's starting to smell good outside. 

We went skiing again on Wednesday and my project for the car trip this time was sorting through the seeds I have left over and going through the seed catalog and picking out what I want for this year.  And what I want for this year turns out to be a bit ambitious.  Oh, the plans I have!  I want to plant some fruit trees and bushes, expand my garden, add several beds to my yard, and start some new containers.  I want to grow enough veggies to freeze and can a large amount for winter.  And, most of all, I want it to be pretty!

photos from This Old House

Aren't those twig trellises cool?  I saw them in TOH magazine a couple of years ago and I think about them whenever I think about gardening.  They're pretty and functional.

I can see a romantic cottage-y type of yard surrounding our old farm house.  You know, the kind with rose bushes and hollyhocks and cosmos.  All lush and pink.  Like this:

photo from Country Living

Unfortunately, we also have rattlesnakes living near our old farm house, so I need to keep the yard safe and free of snake hiding places for my munchkins.  That means no lush bushiness in my yard.  Somehow, I'm going to make it work, though.

The other thing I want this year is to try my hand at edible landscaping.  I want to incorporate as many food plants into my decorative around-the-house planting as possible.  I love the idea of flower pots and beds being beautiful and productive.  I'm thinking strawberry plants in window boxes would be lovely...now I just need to talk someone into making and installing window boxes...

And, my sister gave me this book for my birthday last year.  She knows me well!  I want to adapt a couple of the ideas and plant a wall of sunflowers around the kids' playhouse and have some scarlet runner beans climbing up the posts.  Wouldn't that be a magical play area?

Since bushes are off-limits in the yard, I have plans for a small orchard near my chicken coop.  I've planted the seed(get it? planted?! oh, I'm so clever, hee hee hee) with Hubby and I think he'll fence off an area for me so any horses or calves in the pasture won't chew on the bushes.  I want to start off with some raspberries and gooseberries, maybe some pie cherry bushes, and whatever else I can get away with in this climate.

So, you can see that this all is not going to happen for me this year.  Not with my three little helpers to care for.  But, it is something for me to work toward.  And dream about.  Because it's March, and the weather's nice, and I can pretend that spring is almost here.


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