Garden Party

So I mentioned here that it was a beautiful day yesterday.

Sunshine in March

And we don’t get a whole ton of those in the Pacific Northwest ever, let alone in March.  Chris went outside to power wash the deck and I headed out to my garden.  I’m going to start planting all my crops in a few weeks. I need to wait until all the dangers of frost has passed and I’m hearing rumors of snow this week so clearly we’re not there yet. Anyway, imagine my surprise when I walked out to my garden and found spinach and mixed greens growing!  I had planted some seeds back in August-ish hoping that I’d get some fall greens but they never took off and then it got all wet and gross and I pretty much stopped walking back there.  I mean, not like I live on a farm (we have a 1/4 acre which is still big for the city) but if it’s gross out, the deck is about the extent of my backyard explorations in the winter.

Winter Veggies

I poked around my second raised bed and couldn’t quite figure out if it was weeds or arugula that was growing there.  I knew I’d planted arugula but clearly I’d been a little lax in my naming conventions as the mixed greens were growing in the rows that I’d labeled spinach.  I spent a good while investigating, even eating the leaves which tasted like a lettuce variety to me but then I decided I’d be really embarrassed and grossed out if I made myself a big bowl of weeds.  So I pulled them all out and just weeded the whole bed.  Chance hung out with me while I was out there too.  It’s kind of our thing.  He always sits with his mamma while I’m gardening so it was nice to be able to do our little ritual in March.

Edible or not?

Chance

I weeded all the beds and then got everything ready for planting season.  I’d previously grown my tomatoes in pots with no luck so this year I’m going to plant them in the ground which means I now have a couple more pots to plant things in.  I’m definitely going to need some time on Pinterest finding cute gardening inspirations.  I’ve also felt like I don’t have quite enough space for my garden.  If I had it my way, I’d take over the section by our fence (getting rid of 2 pineapple guava trees that have never produced fruit) and create a giant garden complete with corn.  But for now, Chris says that might be a bit much. But it’s a requirement of my dream house.  Watching corn pop up in rows and a home gym.  I don’t ask for much. But anyway, we had a spare raised bed on the other side of the yard that had just been sitting around so he moved it over for me.  I’m going to have to level it out, fill with dirt etc but it gives me a little more space.

Can't wait for food to be growing here

And because it was so nice outside we decided to grill up some salmon.  This is one of my favorite dinners ever.  Plus it makes me so excited for summer when we can actually eat this out on our deck.  For the salmon, Chris just rubs it with some brown sugar and cayenne pepper and tosses it on the grill.  Asparagus has olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes – also goes on the grill.  The rice is wild and from a box with seasoning.  Not my best effort but what can you do?

I could eat this for dinner every day

Oh and I ended up picking tons of spinach and greens from the yard and made a salad with them that I’m eating today for lunch.  Can’t remember the last time I was so excited to eat a salad.