I’ve been eagerly waiting to get back into the vegetable garden, but Mother Nature has not cooperated so far this spring. In fact, we had snow three times in the last week, negative temperatures and windchills.
But I’ve decided it’s time. No matter what Mother Nature thinks, gardening is going to happen.
Now I’m in Canada, so it’s not going to happen for a little while. The traditional start date for the Canadian gardening season is Victoria Day–also known as May 24 (or the 23rd this year because we’re all about the holiday Monday).
That’s six weeks away, which I think is perfect. There’s lots of work to keep me busy until frost has passed.
It turns out, I’m not the only one with a gardening to-do list. Sarah in Illinois has one too. Inspired by DIY Diva and Ugly Duckling House, we’re kicking off a Dueling DIY challenge. Today, I’ll share my spring garden to-do list. On Wednesday, Sarah will share hers. Every week from now until Victoria Day, we’ll post progress reports and help keep each other on track.
We hope that you’ll join in too. Share your to-do list in the comments today, and come back each week to share your updates.
Here’s what I want to accomplish in the next six weeks:
- Hang the gate
- Edge the garden
- Build raised beds around the perimeter
- Build trellises for the raspberries, tomatoes and squashes
- Start a few seeds indoors
- Till in the ash, straw and manure currently spread over the garden
And a couple of maybes:
- Weather permitting, plant grapes and potatoes
- Run a waterline out to the garden (this one’s Matt’s… I’m not sure he’ll be as enthusiastic about Dueling DIY as Sarah is)
I think it’s do-able. I just need a little co-operation, Mother Nature.
Are you looking forward to gardening season? Or do you have another spring project? What’s your to-do list?
Home on 129 Acres 
that’s quite the list. go for it.
you can plant peas, radishes and lettuce now and have some for May two-four.
Except we had snow again last night and I can’t see the soil! Argh.
Great, ambitious list! I can’t even put a real list down because I know I won’t get it done. But maybe I can put down what I want to organize other people to do, haha! We need to rent a rototiller and dig up the vegetable garden, weed all our gardens, get a load of soil and work it in, get some manure and work it in, plant our new plants and dig another part of the grass up for a garden bed. We also need to hack the path clear to our playhouse and store some things in it, and clear out our shed. O_O Blahhhhh…
Ummm… yeah… so that’s a bit ambitious. Good luck with that.
In all seriousness, maybe you can prioritize and pick one area or one task to focus on for the next few weeks–all manure all the time for example, or just the playhouse at first.
All manure all the time….yeah, that pretty much sums up how I’m feeling about our chances for this list! I’m sure one thing we will get done is to get our plants in the ground. :S
I am so excited to share my list and get started. We are supposed to hit 75F this weekend. I can’t wait!
I’m excited to be doing this with you. We’re supposed to get nice weather finally this weekend too. I have big plans!
This is awesome! I’m so glad that our challenge inspired you two to do this! I won’t be able to participate since I won’t really have a veggie garden of my own anytime soon, but I will be tuning in. I WANT TO SEE SMACK TALK, LADIES. Don’t forget the most important part of the “duel” is to throw down.
You and Kit do the smack talk so well, Sarah! Hopefully I have a productive weekend and I have something to throw down in my post next week!
Hahaha! I love it! It’s ON Julia!
I’m in Colorado this week but next week when I get home to eastern Nebraska I want to turn the three long beds, plant potatoes in one and bassica seedlings in the second. The third will wait until May for the tomatoes. Two of the four square raised beds will be moved to the other end of the garden, filled with recycled dirt and compost to be planted with mixed lettuces, radishes, garden peas, and basil. Then in May the fun really starts as I level ground for the glass house I plan on building using recycled windows I collected last year. I’m going to be able to have something growing through next winter without having plastic dumping snow down my back from tunnel hoops! Someday I may even have a chicken coop in one corner of the glasshouse but not until we stop traveling so much at the beginning of our retirement.
That’s quite a list, Pat! Wow! And a greenhouse chicken coop. How lovely. It sounds like you’re really enjoying your retirement so far.