Spring Garden Plans

I received my first order from Kitazawa Seed Co. a few days ago. I ordered a few things that caught my interest- Pho berry, AKA Gooseberry, Hakurei turnips, Early Bulam, PingTung long Eggplant, Edible Amaranth (Red leaf), and Thai basil.

Everything I have never planted before. Well, with an exeception of Ping Tung long eggplant, it is a Taiwanese varity that I grew up with. I already have an Aero Garden with a varity of herbs growing in my kitcken, so I didn't order any other herbs other than the Thai Basil ( I only have the sweet basil in my Aero Garden, and I use the Thai basil in the Vietnamese soup/Pho I make at home). Since I don't have any experience with the veggie seeds I ordered, today I have been spending sometime researching how to plant, maintain and harvest. I am also mapping out my grounds to see where each plant should go.

Most of the seeds I can't sow until late Spring, however I am messing around with the Poha berry seeds. I am germinating them and I think I am going plant them in the front yard, along side of the sidewalk. Poha berry flowers are yellow with a purple center, it would really look good with the existing Rhaphiolepis indica shrubs. Poha berries are also known as Gooseberries, raw Poha berries also a good source of Vitamin A, Potassium and Manganese, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber and Vitamin C. Chefs world wide are using them in recipes as they pair very well with meats- check this out-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkpTlZdc8dQ

Also along the planter in the front yard, I want to plant sweet potatos/ yam by the Poha berry plants. Sweet potatos have lush vines and deep green leaves. My parents used to plant sweet potatos for the delicious vines and leaves, often not for the roots. I miss this island delicatecy, HOW COOL would it be to be able to grow my own sweet potatos to be able to enjoy them again!

BACKYARD~As far as backyard goes, I am still planning the zones out. I am watching and calculating the hours of sun light each area gets and trying to figure out where to put everything. Since I have sometime til LATE SPRING...I am learning to be patient and plan it better. My north sideyard gets about 6 hours of sun light, and the south side yard doesn't get direct sun light for the most part- I am VERY tempted to get some Shiitake mushroom logs for that area instead of planting other veggies (I grew Shiitake mushrooms in upstate NY before when I lived there for 4 years, and it was a BLAST!). Across my backyard, it's lawn, but I have an area planned to be coverted into a garden, just need to figure out how to properly do it. But the lawn area gets a good 8 hours of direct sunlight. Hmmmm...I wonder how David (my beloved Fiance) would feel if I replaced the entire lawn area with ediable landscape???

SOIL~I still have a ton to learn about soils, PH in soil and etc. but I think I do have 'good' soil here (lol forgive my newbie language), just from the fact that when I was transplanting some tropical plants (yes we do have a little corner of Paradise with tropical plants including a Queen Palm), I dug up some big fat earthworms! Woohoo! Where are some good sources/websites I can turn to for good soil info??

WORM BIN~that's one thing that I can say I have done well in, when we were living in the condo in Carlsbad, I started two worm bins with red worms and they have come to the new house with us.  The inital regular soil has turned so dark, the so called Black Gold. I was so excited! I am keeping the worm bins to compost my fruit and veggie scraps, the worms work pretty damn hard!

Well, I do hope tomorrow gets warmer so it's comfortable enough to work longer in the yard and get a nice tan!! Oh and more pictures of the BEFORE garden are to come!

By the way, more gardening blogs will be posted on http://www.freedomgardeners.org/Findsandy/