Garden 2010: The Best of Times…

Along with the best of times, like an unseasonably warm early spring and some mind-blowingly sunny days a couple of weeks ago, came maybe not the worst of times but certainly some disappointing (albeit seasonally appropriate) dips in the mercury. Plus a couple of crazy hail storms that did amazingly little damage to the baby greens trying to grow in the raised beds.

But the tomatoes and peppers have survived, thanks in large part to the walls of water surrounding them, and we'll see how they fare when the sun really starts to shine. Which it will. Eventually. Right?

Here's the list so far:

Raised beds: Basil, spinach, mizuna, arugula, mesclun. chard, carrots (scarlet Nantes), radishes (top photo), lacinato kale and one very large rhubarb in its second year.

Parking strip: Tomatoes (purple cherokee, green zebra, sungold, Dr. Wychee's yellow, black cherry), peppers (Jimmy Nardello, pimiento de padron, Melrose), gai lan. Plan to add two or three aci sivri Hungarian peppers.

GSNW Garden 2010: Dreamscape

It might sound pathetic at first, but nothing gets me dreaming like a strip of dirt. Especially if that dirt is newly plowed in anticipation of planting. This is the second season for our parking strip with its unobstructed southern exposure and, though it doesn't look like much now, I'm already imagining it bursting with greens and peppers and tomatoes.

So consider this the first installment in the 2010 GSNW Garden series!