from market to garden

I'm finding my way back to my weekly farmer's market rhythm. What a relaxing excursion to walk through the market bursting with new plant life. From the flowers, shrubs, and trees to the herbs and veggies, the best a NC April has to offer was presented in all of it's shiny green glory.

Strawberries were in abundance, a full 2 weeks ahead of schedule with this warm winter and spring. Even though we plan to find a you-pick farm in the next week, I bought a gallon of the sweet juicy berries to tide us over until our picking day.

My favorite plant, veggie, and egg vendor and purveyor of organic and heirloom varieties, had plenty of beautiful plantlings to choose from, including some larger plants already bearing.


My goal this week was to buy tomato and pepper plants for my garden and the organic heirloom farmer did not disappoint. I bought some Brandywine, Cherokee purple, and Red Cherry tomatoes along with Jalapeno and Big Bertha Sweet Bell peppers. (oh yeah! I like the sound of Big Bertha!)


I intended to get some planting done today, which didn't happen, but definitely I'll get those plantlings, and some of the many seeds I bought, in the ground over the next few days. I can't wait for things to really start moving in the garden.


Another garden development I'm happy about it the ability to water using our rain barrel (finally!) After solving problems of clogging and the spigot lying to close to the ground, I now have a functional water barrel, which has yielded at least a dozen gallons of water or more over the last few days of no rain and new little herb seedlings that need a drink!


Even though I didn't actually get much done today, I'm content with how things are going out in our little garden patch. It's not much, but it's more every year. I'm learning more about gardening, what works and more importantly, what doesn't, each year as well, and I can't complain about that!