Last year’s gardening efforts weren’t very impressive. It started out fabulously, but then the various squash pestilences started. Then the deer ravaged the backyard garden, so we finally put up netting. Then came the grasshoppers, so we used Nolo Bait, but it didn’t stop the destruction. I waited patiently to plant some winter greens, got seeds and small vegetable starts in the ground, and the armadillos dug up everything.
Typically we have an ample winter garden, but there were too many things to battle with, and experiments that didn’t work. The chia experiment was a bust. The plants were gorgeous, but the seeds are so much tinier than what you buy, I couldn’t harvest them. Then there was the gorgeous pot of lettuce that I covered to protect it from freezing, but when I uncovered it, the worms had eaten everything down to the stems. And I don’t even want to think about the seedlings I had growing in our partially enclosed breezeway area that got covered with aphids – in November!
For now, we’re making due with some green beans I froze in the summer, a little spinach that has so far survived, lots of arugula still, and my neighbors turnips and greens. Of course, my most dependable winter crop is sprouts, which I started growing several weeks ago. I’ll be going to the Downtown Waco Farmers Market soon to get more root vegetables.
The good news is, at least it’s January and spring isn’t too far away for us. And we get to start the process all over again, because we just can’t help ourselves! It just has to get better…..doesn’t it?