Easter (and Andre's Birthday) certainly didn't slow down the gardening.

Today was spent filling pots, weeding, fertilizing and planting seeds for starts.

I'm doing this alongside my sister Rose in Port Townsend, Washington, and I think she is WAY ahead of me in the start department. I have to get many more of these done over the next few days. I did three pots with four seeds each of squash today. Will have to get more plant tags so that I can do tomatoes, etc., tomorrow. Its definitely looking like a working area though.

Richard placed some great webbing over my lattice in the far raised planter for my peas..though they won't go in yet. The cloche is over the brassica starts (fingers crossed). Most of the time was getting the large pots filled and watered so that they can settle and be topped off. My back will hurt later I'm sure.

I'm a bit worried about the raspberries that we put in last year. Not much to be seen though I did water and fertilize them with some mild miracle grow.

Today was another productive day in the garden. Cleaned another section of the flower garden and in the vegetable corner I planted Daikon radishes, French Breakfast radishes, Tom Thumb Lettuce, Pak Choi and Spinich. I know I'm early and it is a risk but I have plenty of seed and protective coverings to help them through.

In my brassica bed I did seeds for starting Cauliflower, Broccoli, Cabbage and Brussel Sprouts. They were placed under a cloche so hopefully will make it through the rest of spring. I rather like doing the "in bed" starts. It seems to be more comfortable for the plants and is easily more convenient for the farmer.

I just couldn't help myself.

Placed lack plastic over some of the other beds to help warm the soil. Tomorrow I will work at filling pots (large and small) in between cooking a ham dinner.

My muscles are soooo sore and my ankle is swollen and I'm limping when I walk...and enjoying every minute.

Today was more cleaning. After a year of relative inactivity my body is objecting vigorously but it feels great. Trellises are up for the peas and we have started filling pots for container plants.

Last autumn we planted four blueberry bushes. My neighbor (who is an excellent gardener) tells me that they are a bit of a "keep your fingers crossed" crop for Idaho Falls but I made sure to take care of soil acidity levels when they were placed last autumn and each of them is coming back with buds. Two varieties are necessary for cross-pollination. I sprinkled them with their additive and will hope they continue to do well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I thought that I would post a few photos of our U.K. kitchen garden to remind myself of the transition I'm making. These photos were taken in the first year of our U.K. residency. The gardens had fallen onto hard times as they had been unused for years. It took a crew of works several days to clear away debri and waste from the grounds but the result was worth it.

We continued expanding and improving each year we were in Cumbria but we lucky to start with a foundation of several black, red and white currant bushes, gooseberries, apple trees, damson trees and a stand of rhubarb that could feed England.

The U.K. has a firmly entrenched gardening culture and the locally sourced vegetables are a joy. The days of 200 onions are past for me but I hope to transfer the productivity and home gardening lifestyle to our new Idaho residence.

And so it begins....

My husband and I moved to Idaho Falls after spending five years in Cumbria, U.K..

We were blessed to live in a small and welcoming community in a Edwardian home with a large kitchen garden area.

Our home here has much smaller grounds but my love for gardening has not diminished. This blog will serve as a diary for myself on gardening in the Idaho Falls area and how I can obtain the most production out of a relatively small space.

After a pretty brutal January, February and most of March we finally received a forecast of several days of spring like weather. Time to start the gardening.

Today I cleaned the area in the corner of our garden that I refer to as my vegetable heaven. I cleared the grounds around the Apple and Plum trees and turned over the soil in my new raised beds.

I was unable to garden last year (the first year in our home) due to an injury that had me in a wheelchair and/or walker for most the year. One of the few things I did get to do was place a black currant bush in the section next to the Apple tree. It is showing a few buds so I'm hoping it made it through the harsh winter in relatively good health. We had about 16 black currant bushes in the U.K. and they are lovely for syrups, jams and simply crushed with a bit of sugar to serve with pate'.

Tomorrow promises to be another pleasant day so planting will begin.