Today's mail brought a veritable avalanche of gardening catalogs - does this mean that spring is on its way? To look outside, one might even think that spring is already here. The sky is a clear, crisp blue and there is not a trace of snow or ice anywhere. Take a step outside, though, and winter reminds of its presence with a grip of cold, stark, arctic air. Still, the catalogs must be an omen of something so I took a few minutes to think about what I might want to plant and/or can this year.


Since last year was just so awful for gardening I'm going to cut my expenditures by about two-thirds and spend more of the budget that is left on, well, dirt. My husband has agreed to built several 4 X 8 raised beds for placement next to the back pario that will have to be filled and I've already been sheet composting on the one bed that the house's previous owners established. I'm going to attempt to stick to three kinds of tomatoes (Sungolds), a paste (most likely Amish Paste) and another variety for slicing. I also want to do several common kitchen herbs (rosemary, a basil or two, a mint or two, cilantro and maybe even some lavender if I'm feeling ambitious), tomatillos, a hot pepper or two, radishes, mesclun, and maybe, just maybe a squash or two. Oh, and the sunflowers requested by the Boy Wonder. My long term gardening hopes are a lot more involved than this, but until I'm able to organize an effective deer/rabbit/squirrel deterrant system I'm going to have to be a little more restrained.


Since the garden area will be fairly compact I'm hoping to get away with a relatively shortish (4 feet) chicken wire fence (sunk into the ground about half a foot and angled out from the base) combined with alternating pepper/soap and garlic/egg sprays. We'll see how this works.


If all goes well, I'll be able to can salsa and tomatoes from home grown produce. For the rest I'll have to visit farm stands. I've opened my last jar of cherry sauce and, although I have lots of strawberry sauce left from last summer's failed jam, I will probably make more come June. I'll also need to do more dilly beans and eggplant relish, not to mention blueberry sauce and jam and raspberry jam. I've been curious about pie fillings, too, even though I don't make much in the way of pie. Then there are pickles of various kinds to consider as well.


And nothing on this list takes into account the pressure canner I'm hoping to buy. It would be great to be able to do spaghetti sauce, chili, soups, or plain veggies like green beans.


For now, though, I'll have to content myself with my newly arrived catalogs and some dreams.