First full garden update!

**Once a month, I will give you guys a full garden update. Here is your first one. It is long, but you will know everything going on with my garden**

I started my basic tomatoes, roma tomatoes, celery, and bell peppers inside today. I think it is half out of impatience and half because I have never really given these plants enough time to grow very large. I must admit, the bell pepper is a beast I have not mastered. I am a little anxious about whether we will have time to get all of the prep work done before planting time. We only have one bed made, and no supplies to even get a jump on the others. It is an expensive month to be living in though! I think if I get all of them built and filled by the beginning of March we will be okay. Because even if the seeds are started, they can't go outside until then anyway.

I am wondering, on another note, how our bulbs will fare, as they started sprouting before it really got cold. They seem to be doing fine. I can't wait until Spring when everything starts coming to life!!

I cut down the asparagus, covered the strawberries, and tacked frost fabric over the perennials for the winter. I don't know if that will help, or if it is at all necessary. At least they know I love them.

GARDEN WALK: The leaves on the apple tree are a gorgeous crimson shade of burgundy, and the blueberries have started to match. The blueberries are another thing I am worried about. I wish I had prepped the soil better before planting them. I am adding sporadic sprinklings of ammonium sulphate to try and acid it up enough for them. I think the bareroot plant experience just caught me off guard, and I need time to see how it all turns out. I wasn't expecting the plants to look the way they did. And then some pulled right out of it, so the ones that are slower to return to life have me worried sick. The hollyhocks are supposed to be able to survive cold, so I am not doing much with them. The plum tree still is not showing any signs of life (although at this point in the season, I wouldn't expect ti to start until spring anyway). The strawberries are limp (from being frozen) and from what my mom says, they left them unmulched when she was little, and they died down, but came back every spring just fine. The Venus fly traps (my carnivorous compost buddies) are turnign black, but from everything I have read, they are indigenous to the Carolinas and therefore, survive despite the frosts every year. I plan on getting some more carnivorous buddies for our compost area next summer. I love having unique plants (especially when ants fear them as much as ours seem to). The asparagus seems to be doing well after being cut, the stems are quite strong. I worried that I shouldn't have cut them to the ground their first year. There is tons of conflicting information about that. But I went ahead and did it. The citrus trees have all lost their leaves, and I fear I have killed them for good. The pear tree hasn't noticed it is cold out yet. The cherry tree has just paused its growth. The leaves are still green and healthy, just no new ones. The lavender seems to be doing well, I guess. I have no idea what to look for. It's not dead. The peach tree I think is storing up energy to explode in spring. I have dug down and seen new growth just under the surface. The rhubarb also looks limp from the cold, but I have faith it will come back. I can feel that the walnut trees are alive, but they are waiting to prove it.

Our banana plant is dead, I think. But I half expected it. The pineapple looks like it may pull through (I will plant some more by it this summer). The lilacs seems to be dormant, but alive, and the sprouts of flowers in the front will probably not make it. (too impatient to wait for spring, I planted them all as soon as I got them) I need to learn to wait. Seriously.

IDEA: I have been looking into maple syrup production, and one sugar maple in the front would supply our entire house :) I think if we rip out the decorative maple and just switch them out it would make a lot more sense. A starter's tapping kit is about $50 (or 5 bottles of syrup). My mom is terrified she will come home to homemade toilet paper I am sure!

BUSINESS: I have written the company we ordered our plants from twice now, with no response trying to figure out how to implement our warranty. It is frustrating. Some things I know will have to be exchanged, others are in the ground until Spring to see. But I would like to know at least what I have to do for the ones I know of for sure. Our raspberries, for instance, were dead on arrival. I am keeping all but one in the ground until spring though, for 2 reasons. One, I don't want to lose them. Two, if they were just in some state of hyper-super-dormancy, I don't want to return them needlessly.

December is supposed to be the month of cleaning and preparing, and it turns out for me that it has been the month of looking at the garden out the window because it is too cold to go outside. I started making a powerpoint for the sustainability consulting firm. Like an introduction to what we do. (I say we like it's plural, it's a bad habit.) It helped me get a better understanding in my head of the direction I want to go. So, if I decide to try to make it work, I am building a foundation.

All in all, getting the beds built and getting them full of soil is our number one priority right now. Later, I really, really want to switch out our stacked composter for a spinning one. The compost is too packed, and doesn't get enough air, and therefore doesn't generate any heat. Which means, no compost, just a pile of rotting food waste...