The luck of the Irish is with us

It's Saint Patrick's Day today, which means the luck of the Irish is with us as we start our garden seedlings.  It's true we did just get snow dumped on us yesterday, but with a forecast of temperatures in the 50-60 degree range for later this week, the mere 3-5 inches of snow that arrived this very morning does not concern us much.

So today we broke out two seedling trays (and realized we need at least 3 more trays available) to start our longer range plants in.  According to expert sources (my brother with gardening experience), you want to start off with indoor plants for those vegetables that take a good 6-8 weeks plus to mature. So not your lettuce and such, but the Peas, Beans, Tomatoes and Peppers.  We did get a few going today just to practice up, and will plan to acclimate them to the outdoors and transplant in about 6-8 weeks, depending on how they do.  I dream of planing strawberries and blueberries, but wonder if that's not too ambitious for our first year garden.  Then again, nothing ventured, nothing gained!  Why not take a bit of a risk eh?  At least the blueberry bushes, in the 3 standard varieties of course.  We have so much to do yet.  Getting stakes and netting (if we are to plant any berries), and preparing the boarder with organic animal deterrents such as Marigolds and Garlic.  In addition, prepping with an anti-but recipe I've read about which is a concoction of lemon soap and ammonia water spray.  I've no idea if it works or if it will actually poison us instead (ammonia?!) if we actually use it, so I think a little more research is warranted on that one.  Then there are the rest of the supplies (pitchfork, watering can, bucket, fertilizer/compost, supports, and trellises.)  And not to mention the herb garden (mint, dill, rosemary, basil, chives, and can one plant lemon grass I wonder??).

Anyway, Spring is such an exciting time for gardeners.  I've witnessed the other seasoned community gardeners out there already puttering about.  Some gardeners are growing things year round, which makes us look pretty lazy by comparison.  Our plot looks ready and able, if not a bit on the barren side of things.  Never fear - that will be changed soon enough.  I hope you brought your galoshes and gloves, because we're off to the races!