Inspiration - The Garden

While flipping through this month's issue of Better Homes and Gardens, I especially enjoyed their Fresh Living feature. It was a garden inspiration work space.

The idea is to collectively store your seed packets, catalogues, garden plans and inspirations in one space. I found this especially useful for myself, as my seeds and markers are in one place, my inspirations in another and so on and so forth.

One thing my garden has always lacked is a vegetable garden. I have a rather large yard with a rather large vegetable patch, but it's most definitely not being used to it's potential. Year one of it's un-use was excused because of a very pregnant me. In year two, I had my husband make me 4 small plots to make a more manageable garden. I figured it would be more successful if I started out small. This year however, my goal is to optimize the space to produce a bountiful crop from late spring until early fall. It's something that will take a lot of work and maybe most importantly, a lot of discipline. I just feel as though it's my responsibility to make the most of what I've been blessed with.

Here in Ontario, in the heart of the green belt, we have rich soil and optimal growing conditions. I have the opportunity to plant a large variety of crops. I have the time to maintain a garden and I have a son who can learn the rewards of harvesting something you've planted and tended to. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and try to prepare my meals with fresh, farm stand ingredients so why not ones I've grown myself?

This morning, I took my first step in the right direction. I ordered my Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Catalogue. I've been collecting photos for inspiration and I've been making lists of my favourite produce that I would love to have readily available. I'm assembling my own garden inspiration workspace in my basement until spring arrives and I can transform my potting shed.

With thoughts of juicy heirloom tomatoes and crisp lettuces, I'm sketching out my garden-to-be. I have a trip planned to the library this afternoon to try and find some helpful gardening resources. There's no point in planting a garden if you don't know how to properly tend to it, right? Gardening is in my blood - I come from a long line of green thumbs so I think it's time I exercise mine!

The Baker Creek Seed Catalogue is mailed out to over a quarter of a million gardeners each year. It's available on their website here and is free (a $5 shipping charge is applied).

This is the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Bank in Petaluma, California. It's quite literally an old bank.

Baker Creek has over 1,400 heirloom seeds available and is a favourite of many a gardener, including Martha Stewart!