Are You Thinking About the Spring Garden Yet?

In South Louisiana we really don't have a fantastic show of fall colors.  The Chinese Tallow trees, Bradford pears and, like the photo below shows, the Japanese Maple.  We planted several of these in our landscaping many years ago.  Their leaves are gorgeous to look at this time of year, especially when the sunshine filters through their leaves, highlighting the yellow, brown and red colors.

We don't really get a real taste of all four seasons down here.  In fact, today it was 72 degrees!  I was in a short-sleeved shirt splitting firewood with an ax and completely wet my shirt with sweat.  But we've got to prepare.  Cold weather is on the way next week with temperatures as low as 17 degrees on Tuesday.  I want to make sure we have plenty of wood to burn in the fireplace.  I've got more to cut and split, but I think we'll be covered for this year at least.

But we're already thinking ahead for the spring.  On January 1st, as is our custom, we planted our tomato, pepper, and eggplant seeds.  We planted many different varieties.  Most seeds were seeds that we purchased, although some were seeds we saved.  My wife made a homemade greenhouse with a baker's rack fitted with a shower curtain fastened down with binder clips.  The little greenhouse, put in the sun, keeps the soil temperatures up and the soil moist to promote germination.  Of course, when the temperatures will be lower than 55, we bring the rack indoors.

Peek in the little greenhouse with me.  You can see the first tomato seedlings sprout.  The first variety to sprout this year was Cherokee Purple.

Ya'll have a great weekend!