Happy 2012

I've made it through the first week of 2012, and I'm excited about this year since it's the first year that I've started with things already growing in the garden. This year's resolution? Grow and eat more vegetables!...and also exercise more :) 

Despite a 3-week vacation I took for the holidays, with no one tending my plants, the cold season vegs seem to have survived. I'm sure they would have been much happier with some regular watering, but hey! they lived. The edible pea vines are climbing, up to about 3' or 4' and the broccoli and cauliflower look excellent. I'll be harvesting some of each this week, making it the first harvest of 2012. The purple broccoli plants look strong, but no sign of flowers yet, and the red cabbage plants also look great, though their leaves are still quite loose. I don't know how the cabbage heads form, or how long it takes them to do so, but I'm hopeful that it will happen. Between the big plants there are still radishes, carrots, and beets. The beets and carrots are suffering from lack of water, and have grown very little. The radishes also have hardly grown, though this is probably for the best. Strawberry starts from last year are finally taking off, and I hope to add a few more starts this month. The only thing that's looking really sad is the sweet pea vines. I'm hoping it's just lack of water that is stunting their growth, and hopefully a few weeks with regular watering and they'll be ready to bloom come spring time.

When I picked up the big pile of mail from the post-office, it was a pleasant surprise to find three seed catalogs! Let the seed ordering begin!