It's Alive! MUAHAHAHA!

It was pretty out today, so while the hubby and I were out adventuring, we couldn't resist stopping at the garden store.  Remember that organized, thought-out garden plan I posted a couple weeks ago?  Yeah ... that went out the window.

So first of all, we discovered what is by far the best local garden store to obtain veggie starts and seeds - Minor's.  Yay!  This was a big problem we ran into in the fall - everybody around here mostly sells flowers.  So we stocked up.

And by stocked up, I mean "went completely overboard."  We got an entire flat of strawberry starts.  That resulted in four hanging pots:

And overflowed into three more pots that we thankfully had sitting in the garage.

We mixed Ozark Beauty, which is an ever-bearing variety, and Allstar, which is June-bearing.  So we should have a nice crop in June, but still be able to pluck the occasional delicious ripe berry throughout the summer.  Om nom nom.

Then we picked up seeds for the rest of the summer.  We didn't get eveything - I want to use starts for the big mid-summer plants, like tomatoes, cukes, and peppers.  Our season isn't very long, so I want to maximize our growing time by using transplants rather than seeds.  It's too early to put those seedlings out now, however, and we don't really have any good sunny indoor space to keep them until next month.  So those will come later.

So here are some things we can plant now:

A few that we will start from seed once we're frost-free (I'm thinking around Memorial Day):

A side note here: potatoes are the COOLEST THING EVER to grow.  We planted them last year with pretty much zero foreknowledge of what they were going to look like - and they send up huge bushy sprouts that take up tons of space!  And then when you harvest them, there's a huge crop of potatoes under there.  SO. AWESOME. 

Also, see the pumpkins?  My obsession.  This will be my first time having my very own pumpkin patch.  ::squee::!

And finally, a few things that will survive into the fall:

Notice carrots are in several of these groups.  Hooray carrots!  The ones I plant late-season will actually taste sweeter than the summer harvest, because when it gets cold the starches in the carrot will be converted into sugars. 

We'll see if we want to plant out the whole garden with what we have here, or if we need another couple of things to fill in.  So much for pre-planning.

Also, both types of garlic have magically survived several rounds of snow and hail.  They even look pretty good!  I was under the impression that soft neck and hard neck garlic would put up different types of leaves, but honestly right now I can't tell them apart.  But they're alive! Yay!

So I'm all full of nature-y happiness and hope.  I can't wait for things to start to sprout!!