Brian bought me a greenhouse for my birthday and I am sooooo excited about it! We have to build a deck for it since our property is not flat (it’s on top of a mountain). So, I can’t use it yet but I am having fantasies in my mind of how it will look when it’s bursting with beautiful veggies!

I’ve already ordered my seeds for Spring (even though I had hundreds of others from years’ past – I’m addicted to seeds) and Brian and Mason have already started putting in more raised beds out back since the weather has been mild. In my greenhouse, I’ll be growing small plants. Everything will be edible, of course. I’m especially excited about the beautiful Atomic Grape Tomatoes.  Check out those colors!! I even found a toothache plant which looks like something out of Little Shop of Horrors. How cool is that?

The larger veggies will be grown in the raised beds, of course, along with our gourds. This year, I’m planning a gourd forest. I got the idea from our crazy pumpkin vines last year. They meandered into the woods and climbed up trees and we actually had to harvest some pumpkins from where they were growing on tree trunks and branches!

So, I’m going to mix a few dozen of my gourd seeds, and plant them here and there on one corner of the property. I’m not really a whimsical person but I have this vision of lots of different gourds and pumpkins all growing amongst each other. Of course, all the food that we can’t eat quickly, or store, will get taken to the local food bank and to our church.

There’s a desk outside of the sanctuary and parishioners bring their extra fruits and veggies there for fellow church members to take home. Last year, we donated several pumpkins from our garden to “the cause.” The kids loved them!

We’re also revving up to get started on the community garden, which is sponsored by our church. In 2021, our bed of collards did NOT do well…while our collards at home did GREAT. I have no idea why. There were two other beds at church sponsored by other members. Their veggies did FAR better than ours at that location.

Here at home, the most prolific producer in our garden last year was the okra. In  the community garden this year, they’ll have 20 raised beds so I’ve volunteered to plant and care for an Okra bed at church for 2022. It seems those things are impossible to kill so, for this brown thumb, I think that would be appropriate. I even found an okra variety without spines!

Regarding my brown thumb…

I can grow okra, green beans, pumpkins, and tomatoes pretty well. Peas…not so much. In December, I bought a re-plantable evergreen in a pot for Christmas. All I had to do was keep it watered, and give it some sunlight, until it was time to plant it. Aaaaaand, it’s now browning, drooping, and pretty much dead. Not sure how I managed to do that.

Our grandson, Jack, and I planted a tiny herb garden using a kit that Mason bought me for my birthday. It is doing well because it has it own own light, water source, and food all built/measured in. I just have to…look at it. And, THAT’S why it’s all still alive. 😉

No more snow came this week and none is in the forecast. What IS in the forecast is some warmer temperatures next week…after it gets down to 17 tonight. Ug.

By the way, I HIGHLY recommend Baker Heirloom Seeds. I have been buying from them for years and they never disappoint. I get nothing at all for mentioning them here. 🙂

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Angela Hoy lives on a mountain in North Georgia. She is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the President and CEO of BookLocker.com and AbuzzPress, and the author of 24 books.

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Learn more here: https://24hourshortstorycontest.com/

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