Nancy says "I love gardening." But she admits that she's not good at it "the way I'm good at cooking." Me neither. I'm a way better cook than a gardener. I'd rather have chicken guts on my hands than dirt any day.
But this year Nancy's got a brand new gardening bag. It's called "Square Foot Gardening" from Mel Bartholomew's book of the same name."The idea is that you take your garden bed and divide it into squares...and you put different things in the different squares and you can replace them as you pull them up." Nance has rainbow chard and spinach planted already. She also has expensive-if-you-buy-it radicchio. Fava beans, too, which I've always enjoyed with liver and a nice Chianti.
Nancy also reccos the packed with how-to photos Small Plot Big Harvest: a step by step guide to growing fruits and vegetables in small spaces.
Me, I've got my usual garlic going plus four pepper plants I just potted:
Jimmy Nardellos for sausage and pepper subs, Peperoncini for pickling, Bulgarian Carrot peppers because why not? And something called a Beaver Dam, which I must have ordered just for the name.
This week we'll sow our usual carrots, radishes, bok choy and kale.
Will Nancy's $3 thrift shop score, the Topsy-Turvy Upside Down Tomato Planter really, really work? We'll keep you posted. Any special spring planting plans for you this year?
"Plant and your spouse plants with you. Weed and you weed alone."
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau
