Preoccupied By All Things Green and Growning

Yep. Once again it has happened. Spring rolls around and my mind becomes consumed with thoughts of flats of annuals, potting soil, and perennial beds. Of course on my free time (ha!) I am doing everything in my power to insure the success of my veggie garden which means watering A LOT! It has been 2 weeks since we were blessed with rain here in Colorado Springs. Fires are burning near Trinidad and La Junta and when the wind gets to blowing from the south we all suffer. Sunrises and sunsets are tinged with orange and red and the stressed out trees are producing copious amounts of pollen which combined with the dust coats everything. Difficult working conditions for a gal with seasonal allergies, but what can I do? Can't stand being inside for too long even with all this adversity!
Our backyard farm is coming along nicely. Barb passed 2 raised beds my way and my crops of lettuces and spinach I have growing in them are abundant and and downright perfect.

My carrots and beets that I seeded weeks ago failed to sprout much and I went ahead and re-seeded them yesterday; I think this was due to the wild temperature fluctuations we were having for a couple of weeks and a possible missed watering. My first planting of potatoes is lush and green and I have done my first hilling . Last week I planted my patch of hot and sweet peppers, 5 varieties of tomatoes (which I was worried had lost to the wind but appear to be bouncing back wonderfully), squash, zucchini, kale and onions. Yesterday I planted the second batch of potatoes I acquired (Thanks Cheryl!), pole beans, purple and french filet bush beans and pumpkins in our front yard pumpkin patch. Today I went over to Good Earth Garden Center and bought our hops Humulus Lupulus. They are
planted and I am thrilled to have that step done!

I prefer to direct-seed much of my garden but I will admit that I prefer to buy my tomato plants at Good Earth as well since growing tomatoes is one of their specialties. They have a plethora of varieties to choose from and I decided on 6 that are heirlooms in a variety of sizes, colors and textures.

What have you planted that you are excited about this year?

A Few Things

I finally have a few minutes to sit down at the computer and blog! I feel like I have so much to share. Two nights ago I made a stir fry with veggies all from the garden: two types of beets, broccoli, carrots and 5 color silver beet Chard. It's true, I took pictures. There are few things that make me as happy as eating something I picked not even an hour before.
Last night around 12:30 a crazy storm rolled through with huge wind gusts, lots of cloud to cloud lightning and heavy rain but thankfully no hail. I sat watching it out the front window for a while hoping beyond hope that I would still have my beautiful tomato plants in the morning. Just North of us they had golf ball sized hail and a Tornado sighting!!
Today I am harvesting my remaining spinach and continuing the endless weeding that apparently goes along with getting consistent rainfall. It is a beautiful cool morning and I am feeling so grateful for it after the last few days of heat.