Plan to Grow Some Veggies and New Flowers in 2008

If you need another reason to justify the amount of work it takes to grow enough vegetables to feed your family, check out this article in the Financial Post. The author, Alia McMullen, echoes the concern of many writers and economists that a recession in 2008 will be compounded by food shortages.

If you are new to growing early season veggies, start with the simple ones such as chard and kale, leaf lettuce, beets, radishes, snow peas, green beans and mustard.

Burpee Seeds has a variety of seed-starting helpers available and it's almost time to start seeds, so ..... click and take a look.

Every year it is a good idea to try something new in your garden. A strong candidate for this year's must-have new plant -
Klehm's Song Sparrow Nursery has a new Echinacea on their website that is called Echinacea Purpurea 'Coconut Lime' though it is actually white with a green pompom center. Their catalog says it ages to a pale lime with a brilliant orange cone.

Today's 73-degrees made it possible to accomplish 6-hours of maintenance work in the yard. We spread 20-bags of mushroom compost, pulled weeds, and mulched part of one of the vegetable gardens.

Photos: Sunrise in our back yard and the inside of the garden shed stuffed with over wintering flowers and pots of bulbs waiting for spring.