hooray!

i was able to work with a wise gardener this weekend so i picked her brain and went through gardening magazines. i said i was sad that our garden was so beautiful, but that it wasn't a garden i would have necessarily planted (think tonnes of herbs, veggies, and 100 dahlia plants). but then she said that she grows her veggies right in among her flowers, and that i could plant veggies where the previous owners had planted annuals. so we brainstormed some vegetables that wouldn't necessarily attract slugs and bugs and we came up with some climbing things and some things that probably taste pretty terrible to most pests. so this spring i'll be planting arugula, radishes, carrots, snow peas, swiss chard, green onions, and possibly spinach, leeks, and rhubarb. the summer brings promise of tomatoes (dig deep and buy small plants!), beans (seeds), squash (don't buy seeds), cucumber (don't buy seeds), zucchini, and hopefully i'll successfully pot strawberries on the deck for fear of slugs. she has had good luck with the following tomato varieties: oregon spring, early girl tomatoes, yellow sungold cherry tomatoes.