This is Alabama??

It has snowed four times so far this year.  Here are some pictures of the garden from the "Big" snow of January 9-10.  We had almost four inches up here.

The raised bed

Do you see the prodigal hen?

We got her back!

The asparagus bed

The (former) herb garden

And the obligatory "Cardinal in Snow" picture.  Sometimes you just give in and enjoy the shot!

What's Up?

I did not get outside to get pictures of what has kept Marvelous Mark so busy all weekend but I thought you might enjoy seeing what's up in the basement under the grow lights.

Tomatoes

Cabbage

Broccoli

Artichokes!

And lettuce.  Homegrown.  No comparison to iceberg!

 So far, everything that we have started from seed inside is up and thriving.  Hopefully within the next day or so I'll get some pictures of what is going on outdoors.  Don't think we are being deterred by the cold and the bouts of wintry weather!  Gardening in January?  You betcha!

Getting ready; winter in our home.

This year we are more interested in year-round gardening.  Mark looks forward to the winter months as a time of planning and preparing.  He has worked hard to developed a spreadsheet calendar/timeline to help him keep up with when he needs to do what.  Doing this on the computer lets him keep track of what has been done and what needs to be done.


Winter is when we start seriously looking at the different catalogs.  In the last post I showed you the table where we store our seeds.  Some of these are left overs from last year's planting.  Others are things we harvested from last years' plants.  It is a feeling of accomplishment to see that we are going to be able to re-plant without having to re-purchase!  After Mark figures out what he has on hand (another spreadsheet), he starts looking through catalogs to figure out who has the best product and the best price.  Some of the seed we purchase locally.

Winter is also a good time to read.  Our local library Co-Op is wonderful.  We can go online, look up a book, and request a hold on it.  If the book is at a different branch within the system it is shipped to our branch as soon as it is available. We find that it is often easier to get hold of gardening books in the fall and winter than in the spring.

Today I decided to do a photo shoot of the current catalogs and books we have on hand.  Some of these are library books, others are part of our library.  If you have a used book store or a library used book sale table, that can be a great place to pick up a bargain.  I did give Mark a little bit of a hard time about how much we have.  He pointed out that I did have some old catalogs and some repeats (Park Seed is bad about sending multiple copies of their catalogs).
Whatever!  Here is the big picture: please note that this is the couch where our 6 foot 4 inch Daniel can stretch out comfortably with plenty of room!

Here are Mark's personal favorites.  The only one missing is Harris Seed.  Since the titles are a little hard to read, they are: Pinetree Garden Seeds, Parks, and Totally Tomatoes.

Here are his three favorite books:

Yes, Dick Raymond is one of our favorites.

Stay tuned; more to come!

Welcome!

Welcome to Uncle Mark's Garden!  It is our goal to have you join us in our gardening adventures this year.  Mark has been asking me for sometime to chronicle his gardening year.  Grab a fresh cup of coffee and some gardening dreams and join us.

Gardening is a year-round process at our home.  When the weather is too cold, wet and dark to be outdoors working the beds, Mark is indoors perusing catalogs, developing his planning calendar, ordering seeds, and dreaming big.  We have 3.5 acres to play with but a lot of that land is wooded and had not been tended much before we moved in.  Our first year here was spent clearing more area and doing what we could with a very cold, very wet winter followed by a very hot, very dry summer.

 This is the side yard last year.

This is the side yard (also known as the potato patch) this year.  What a difference a bow saw makes, right?


Mark was able to use a lot of the wood cleared to make different things.  I am hoping that over the next year he will do more with the furniture; I like his rustic furniture!

I'm thinking that most of the time we will be a little heavy on the pictures.  Enjoy, and check back often.  One of us will be posting at least once each week.