Spring... please hurry!

You know the old saying, "March comes in like a lion"?

Well, that's very true for here this year. We've had snow and freezing temperatures since the beginning of the month. I really hope the month goes out like a lamb and it's planting season soon!

Since the end of February, I have been scouring gardening Web sites and blogs for information about planting vegetables in containers. We have a nice big deck behind our duplex that I want to fill with veggies. It gets morning sun and will be PERFECT for it!

So, I'm thinking of starting seeds soon. I bought some seeds, just from the grocery store. I decided for this first year, I'll just do regular seeds. Maybe after I am schooled in the art of growing things, I'll branch out into heirloom seeds.

Well, here's the line up for this year!

* Peppers (we eat A LOT of green and red peppers, so I thought these would give me the best return on my money). I plan to plant these in a large tub so there's plenty of room for the roots to stretch out.

* Carrots. I need to find a container about 1o inches deep and very wide so I can have lots of rows.

* Strawberries. I actually could not find ANY seed packets for strawberries. Do they not sell those? Anyway, I'll buy starts from a garden center later on. I'll plant those in smaller containers around the large ones.

* Tomato. I think I'll plant one or two of these. I would love to get enough to make and can my own tomato sauce. I'll use some big tubs for these as well since they need a lot of root space.

* Basil. I use a lot of this in my cooking. I will be planting this around the tomato plants. It'll use up the extra space and I hear they grow well together!

OK, I think that's all that I'll be planting. More than likely, while I'm getting my strawberry plants, I'll see a few more things that I'll decide we can't live without! I'm also considering planting spinach, but I haven't seen seeds for that either. I know they have to be somewhere... Who knows, I may go back to the store and get seeds for pumpkins and zucchini, just for fun!

I hope my dear husband doesn't have any plans to actually USE the deck for sitting on or barbecuing... cuz I don't think we are going to have room!