Spring Garden Goals & What I Hope to Grow This Year

Being raised in the PNW has taught me a lot about forestry, recycling, and, strangely, weather patterns. Maybe it’s because we’re always under a cloud of rain out here, which is exactly why everything is so lush and green. But one thing I’ve learned is to watch how winter behaves to predict how hot summer will be… and I’m very nervous about my favorite warm season this year.

My dormant strawberries are not dormant. They started regrowing about three weeks ago, in February. In a lot of ways, I hope we get one more last frost, because if not, we could be in for a very harsh and very forest fire-y summer. 😬

But on to this post!

We’re still figuring out our housing situation, but I think we’ve settled on moving to future Mr. Trip Side’s house, which has a spacious backyard. I told him my lot in life is to be a free-spirited lady who lives in a house filled to the brim with fruits, veggies, and herbs, and I grow so much of it that I invite the neighbor kids over (with parent approval) to pick whatever they want to take home. Maybe someday, right?

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Spring Garden Goals & What I Hope to Grow This Year

This year, I would love to go big, but I also know that’s just not financially feasible right now. We’re starting from scratch, and we also have two huge trees in the backyard where Franklin and Clarece, a couple of very busy squirrels, inhabit year-round. So… I see a lot of chicken wire in our future.

Spring Garden Goals

I’ve never had a backyard this size as an adult, though we did growing up. And the same thing that happened then is happening now: weeds. They’re everywhere. Like, OMG, everywhere. So that’s step one, and the most important one right now. Here are my remaining goals:

Weed everything! Including as many roots as possible
Pull out all signs of blackberry bushes (here in the PNW, they are highly invasive and attract spiders)
Clean the deck
Set out planted flower pots for hummingbirds and bees
Buy outdoor furniture and a BBQ for Ad
Get lights for ambiance
Build raised beds for each area of the yard:
- Root veggies
- Herbs
- Strawberry bed
- Blueberry bed
- Vine veggies

What I Hope to Grow This Year

Oh gosh, I want to say everything, but again, the goal is not to break the bank, just to supplement some of our produce this spring and summer. So, here’s what’s on my hit list:

Herbs
- Oregano
- Basil (lots of it for caprese salad and bruschetta!)
- Lemon Verbena
- Chocolate Mint
- Spearmint
- Rosemary
- Lavendar
Veggies
- Cucumbers
- Zucchini
- Bell Peppers
- Sweet Potatoes (May!)
- Carrots
- Kale
Fruit
- Strawberries
- Blueberries
- Raspberries
Flowers
- Sunflowers!
- Tulips
- Calendula (aka marigolds!)
- Zinnias
- Hyacinth

GAH! You guys, I am just so excited to start this journey. I’ve been reading about how time in the garden is meditative and can genuinely help calm anxiety, and yesterday I weeded for 45 minutes and the time just flew by. I’m hoping to do that two to three times a week going forward. Seeing things grow truly brings me joy.

What are you hoping to plant this year? Do you have a yard? A garden? An urban oasis like I had in the city? Tell me everything.

xoxo