The Goblin's Market: Spring Gardening

My big dreams for a garden in the backyard were thwarted for a bit when I got pregnant (and huge and lazy) and then was holed up taking care of a newborn. Getting outside and digging in the dirt seems like a monumental task when you're only sleeping 2 hours a night. But now that Kieran is 1 and I'm getting the hang of the whole mom thing, I've been taking advantage of the beautiful weather and spending some time in my veggie garden. I figured it would be a good idea to ease back into it with a few things that are easy to plant and grow. 'Rainbow Bright Lights' chard is one of my favorite garden veggies-- it requires very little attention and doesn't seem to attract aphids the way mustard greens and collards do, and starting it from seed is easy. I love to plant radishes and carrots together-- the radishes will be ready first, and as you pull them up the carrot seedlings get more sun and the soil is aerated. Lettuce is easy too, and I just snip leaves here and there to make little salads.

Here are my radishes! (AKA best ways to ruin a manicure)

I like it when I find little critters on my veggies, as long as they're good little critters. This is a late-instar ladybird beetle larva. For all of you non-entomologists, that's like an adolescent ladybug. They're voracious predators of aphids and other pest insects, and I'm glad to have them around.