My Two Writing Teachers colleagues and I are hosting the 15th Annual March Slice of Life Story Challenge, in which teachers from around the world participate by posting a story per day.

It’s another grey, drizzly day here in norther Vermont. Not quite spring, not quite winter anymore.

Today, I’m hoping to start planning for my garden. The ground won’t thaw enough to plant anything until after memorial day (end of May), but planning for it this time of year keeps my mind off how gross the weather is.

This year, instead of a full vegetable garden, I’m planning to focus mostly on flowers , with just a few vegetables. It tried that plan last year and it was lovely having the cut flowers all summer - and they seemed a lot easier to take care of throughout the busy summer.

Last year I planted a few varieties of daisies, bachelor buttons, zinnias, and sunflowers. Some did pretty well, others didn’t do well at all and I’m not really sure why. Maybe someone will read this and have some advice for flowers that do well in the chilly, windy, weather of Vermont. Our soil is fairly sandy, so it drains well—but I have been amending it with a lot of compost most years because I don’t think it has a ton of nutrients.

Maybe there’s a fertilizer that I need to sprinkle on during the summer? I didn’t do anything like that last summer - I just planted the seeds and waited to se what would happen. I did do a pretty good job watering though, with a sprinkler on a timer, so I don’t think that was a problem.

I also love to grow gourds - little mini pumpkins and squash. They’re always ready right before Halloween and MUCH easier to take care of than full size pumpkins. I grew pumpkins one year and they took over our yard!

I’ve got strawberries too, they come back each year. And an asparagus patch that comes back every year as well.

Any suggestions, fellow slicers, for some flowers or plants to try this year? Planning my garden helps me get through the dreary Vermont mud season!