Garden Dreaming

So I'm not sure if it's because we got two gardening catalogs in the mail yesterday, because the temperature finally spiked above 40 degrees, or because our garden bed looks like this:

. . . . but I'm definitely dreaming of the days when it looks like this:

This year's planting schedule is going to be a bit tricky, since our baby is due May 1. Plus, we're planning to spend almost a month on PEI during my maternity leave, so watering & harvesting are going to be problematic in July. We cobbled together a plan over breakfast though that we think will work.

The plan is to start with some early spring vegetables that I've always wanted to grow, but we've always put in the ground too late, like peas, carrots, and radishes.  Those should be able to go in late March to early April (4-5 weeks before the due date).  Then, we'll order cucumber seeds and tomato & pepper plants from Burpee to be delivered (versus picked up at the local nursery or at Home Depot) in early May.  If all we have to do is take delivery of the plants/seeds and plop them in the ground, that should be easy enough.

We're hoping to dig a shallow, snaking trench inside the bed and install a soaker hose (which we should have done before we ever filled the bed with soil, but whatever). Connecting the hose to a timer at the sillcock set to go on and off daily should take care of our watering needs when we're away in July.  Then, we'll plan to ask family members and friends to swing by once a week to make sure the garden is getting enough water and harvest whatever's ripe.

You'll notice a lot of shoiuld's in this post.  Who knows what will happen with a newborn in the house?  Here's hoping this will all work out, though!