New Year's Resolutions
Happy 2011!
I made only one tiny New Year's resolution this year, one that I've already kept: Ordering seeds for our spring garden.
My seed catalog arrived in the mail yesterday, and it warmed my chilly day just mulling over different varieties of snap peas and sorrel, imagining the fragrances of anise hyssop and cinnamon basil. Last year I delayed my order until some of my first choices were sold out; today it felt good to cross it off my list even as the temperature fell below freezing.
Now that the order's placed, it occurs to me that my little New Year's pledge wasn't really so simple. I'm also resolving to prepare my soil in time to plant the seeds, to weed, to keep up with the young zucchinis before they turn into compost-bin boats, to pickle my cukes and any extra bounty of green beans, to freeze or can the extra fruits, to make pesto from the herbs before the plants bolt, and so forth. (Watering is one aspect I don't worry much about anymore; we've had great luck with a dripline watering system).
I do have some months of reprieve before the realities of gardening set in. But in the meantime I'm also still repeating the rewards of last year's work -- digging overwintered carrots, enjoying potatoes that were stored well after the fall harvest, snipping frost-sweetened collards and kale leaves from our raised beds. The work always pays off.
Here's to health and happiness and a bountiful harvest for all of us this year. Did you make any resolutions big or small?
-- Rebekah Denn
Peggy on January 02, 2011 at 06:09 AM
I need some of your gardening luck to rub off on me for this upcoming year! Last year was my first year at gardening, and I definitely have much much more to learn!
HopeSew on January 02, 2011 at 07:27 AM
Cinnamon basil sounds intriguing. What happened to your zucchini that you couldn't eat them? When I was a kid, our zucchini always grew huge, and we didn't toss any of them unless bugs or some other calamity really minced it. They went into stir fry and soup, and lots went into chocolate zucchini bread.
Rebekah Denn on January 02, 2011 at 10:56 PM
Peggy, my luck is always mixed! My best advice is to read, get gardening mentors (Amy Pennington is very helpful to Twitter followers, she's @gogogreengarden), and to try a wide variety of seeds. Every year I have some surprising failures and some surprising successes!
Hope, I love the cinnamon basil. I first planted it because of a recipe that called for it in Jerry Traunfeld's "The Herbal Kitchen". (I wound up with a surprising number of new herbs that way). As for the zucchinis, our big ones just got tough and not particularly tasty. We would grate, stir fry, and freeze bunches of them, but it never seemed quite worth the extra effort and cost.