Auntie Maggie's Birthday...

That's a line from the show Red Dwarf.  It seems Arnold Rimmer and I keep journals about the same.  Oh but not this time, I'm catching up, Arnie, roll a 5 and a 2 al you want.  So every year I start at least part of a garden journal, it becomes sort of a record of that year's gardening season.  Last year I was pretty shitty about it, but I will mention that our first frost of 2008 (fall frost) was on October 6th!  That was a record late frost for us, and gave us oodles of tomatoes.  

This year, we're taking a slightly different approach to tomatoes.  They're going in Large containers on the balcony.  This seemed the easiest way to get the theremal yum yums of the house.  Warm nights ought to do it, and also let us rock through that first early frost.  

Cold frames are on the list.  Part of growing up as a gardener (and maybe part of destroying that hopeful childlike gardener within us) is learning what you can grow well and what you can't.  We're in a canyon with limited light, and cold nights.  Our tomatoes suck.  We do, however, get chard, spinach, lettuce and other leaf crops right through the summer.  The hot days of July usually fade into the nice rainy days of August, and most of our leaf crops don't bolt.  

Asparagus is on the list this year.  A 20 crop.  There's something I should have planted 10 years ago.  Oh well, next best time is now, right mom?  

Trendy plants have no place in my garden any more.  Nuts and Bolts!