Sick and tired and waiting.

I've taken a few days off from the blog. This house has been infected by The Cold! I was laid out for a few days, and then I passed it on to Mike and he's still on the couch. I've been busy making soup and doing some more garden planning. When I really sit down and try to figure out where and when I'm going to plant everything my head nearly explodes. I had no idea it would be such an overwhelming task to and figure all of this out. Sigh.

I have been working off of four books primarily. The Edible Garden, which I bought a couple years ago. It's a great overview of planning, year-round gardening, and has about a page devoted to each vegetable with lots of big, pretty pictures, which I like. Mike had Organic Gardening for Dummies, which is always a handy reference. For Christmas I bought The Urban Homestead, which covers not only gardening but lots of home improvement ideas to make your house and life more sustainable and self-sufficient while still living in the middle of the city (the authors also keep a blog that I follow, Homegrown Evolution). And my most recent addition, Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades. The climate here is very unique; it's really a temperate rainforest. The summers are relatively cool, so growing things like tomatoes and peppers present a challenge, but the winters are quite mild, albeit wet, which allows for a functional year-round garden. This book has been great because it really addresses issues, tips, and the best varieties for our specific climate.

I've gone through my calendar for the year and roughly planned out when to start my seeds for each crop indoors, or sow outdoors, or transplant. I'm feeling a little more prepared. As for the seeds we planted last week....still waiting. Every morning we go outside and it's still just a bunch of brown dirt. No green poking through. I'm getting a little worried this is all going to be a complete and utter failure, but we are still in the normal window for the germination of the seeds we put down, so I'm sure it will all work out.

I'm starting some seeds inside today. I don't have a light set-up, but I do have a really large southern-facing window with ledges. So, we'll make due. I'm starting off with broccoli and am ordering a plethora of seeds for the rest of the season later this week.