Mama Gone Green is a blog dedicated to raising happy children and reducing our impact on the Earth. My name is Taryn and I am the mother of 2 young kids and an environmental studies instructor at a community college in Portland, Oregon. Please join me as I journey through life as a mama, teacher, knitter, photographer, gardener, and environmentalist!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Our Spring Garden

As it has been for the past few years, spring is the time when I get excited and antsy about gardening. The time when I realize that gardening with small children can often be difficult (despite the wonderful learning experience that it is). The time when I wish we had more space to have a bigger garden and the time when I yearn to move to a farm where our garden space could seem endless. The time when I vow that this year's garden will be better than last year's. And the time that I feel like I could spend endless hours outside without accomplishing everything I want.
This year, I decided that we were going to simplify our garden plans. I still have big plans, mind you, but slightly less gargantuan than years past. As we have such a small space to work with, we typically buy a huge variety of seeds, but then, in reality, we only plant a few seeds of each type. This year, I decided that we would do seeds for the easier stuff: beets, greens, peas, radishes, carrots, beans and a few others, but we are going to buy starts for everything else. The cost of 2 zucchini starts can't be much more than a pack of seeds, there is less chance that the established plants will get devoured by slugs, and it is one less thing for me to do.
One of these days I will be more organized in my planning and execution of our yearly garden, but as many of you know, with 2 littles and very many other responsibilities, time for gardening is often haphazard. Regardless, we are excited to see what our 2012 garden will bring,and excited for the learning and adventures along the way.
Are you planting a garden this year? Pin It Now!

6 comments:

  1. Oh my, I am a seed fiend too. Sometimes I scare myself. ;) I am excited about your garden and can't wait to see what happens. We had a frost last night, but so far so good. Haphazard gardening is the only way to go for now. Have fun!
    xo,
    Ang (peach coglo)

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  2. LOVE it! Can't wait to see more pics as it grows. I can spend forever outside too. In fact, I do. :) My mom teases me about how I don't mind a dirty house if it means I've been outside in the garden all afternoon. And, she's right. :)

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  3. Love your garden- We've been doing a lot over here too- I know EXACTLY how you feel about wanting to move to a farm- I say it a million times a day-

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  4. Oh, yes summer is not summer without a garden. We too do a bit of both, start some from seed and then buy some starters. It works for us. Can't wait to see how your garden grows.

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  5. Gardening with littles is challenging. I've had years when I've gotten completely over my head and then I burn out by August. This year, I'm trying to keep it simple and focus on a few veggies, rather than overdoing it and letting the garden get overrun by weeds.

    Don't you just hate slugs? What do you do about slug control?

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    1. Sorry about the slowest reply ever! Ugg. Slug control has been a huge pain for us. We have tried copper, beer traps, slug picking, and heck! we even got ducks for slug control but nothing has seemed to fix our problem. Last year I did use a bit of sluggo (it is considered to be organic as it is just phosphorous) but i still don't like to use it b/c it is not good if it gets into the groundwater. However, I used a tiny bit and it seemed to work wonders. I think I have will save it for emergency use only and try and deal with them more naturally if possible. What about you?

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