It's a new year, which means I'm thinking about new garden plans. I also ordered new flower seeds. I thought sharing my new garden plans, and seed orders might be helpful. It's also a good record for me, which is how this blog started out 16 years ago. Can you believe I've been writing this blog for 16 years? I can't. Not really. A quickly drawn garden plan Cutting garden plan for 2023. I drew up a quick plan for the cut flower gardens because instead of my normal "sow and go" method, I'm starting quite a few seeds indoors this year, including my zinnias. In the last couple of springs, we've had a lot of rain in a very short time, and I live on a hill. I found that my zinnias were washed out of the cut-flower, raised garden beds and ended up drowned at the bottom of...

Starting in December, seed catalogs begin to arrive. By January, they arrive daily. Even though many companies have gone completely online, others like John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds send paper seed catalogs. I'm so glad they do. Seed catalogs from 2013. Seed catalogs 2014 Seed catalogs are crack for the winter weary gardener. Three views of the Chiltern Seeds catalogs. Unfortunately, I don't think they ship outside of Great Britain anymore. Like additional Christmas presents during the bleakest part of the year, seed catalogs start showing up about a week before the big holiday, and then for weeks afterward. By the end of January, I usually have a large stack of seed catalogs waiting for me beside my favorite chair. Seeds for vegetable gardening and beautiful flowers entice me, but I make myself lay the catalogs aside until I can really look and choose what I want to grow. Tomato...

I should carry around a sign stating “Will Work for Compost” for I do every autumn. Other than my labor, my compost is free because it's from beautiful shredded leaves. It's time to deal with my leaves that fall like snow twice a year. Fall leaves fall everywhere. Leaves fall like snow in my garden. In fact, they start to fall just about the time we’re ready to plant cabbages, pansies, and bulbs. Various oaks, which make up most of the native, deciduous trees in my central Oklahoma landscape, have the toughest, most fibrous leaves I know of, but if you rake and shred them, they can become a gardener’s best friend. We shred some of our oak leaves when they fall in the spring and autumn and keep them in piles for me to use throughout the year. In my state, Interstate 35 is the demarcation line between the...

While I'm out planting the bulbs this Sunday afternoon, I'll also be thinking about beans and greens and whether I want to start any beans on top of the stove or in the crockpot. I'm trying to insert more beans and greens into my diet, and it's becoming fairly easy. This is to help reduce my cholesterol and lose some weight. Greens in the coldframe from 2015. I don't grow that many greens anymore because I get so many in my CSA. CSA bags almost always have greens in winter. Because I belong to a CSA--Community Supported Agriculture--I get a lot of greens in my weekly bag. Although I like greens, they aren't my favorite thing to eat. Pizza is actually my favorite thing ever, but my 60-year-old body needs fewer carbs. If you're trying to eat fewer carbs or less meat, beans and greens are the way to go....