okra
It's coming at us fast now! Fruit tree buds are swelling!
In proof-reading this post before publishing it, I find I used the word "hopefully" five times. Normally I would find this irritating, and change a few of them, but the word "hope" feels very apt for a post about spring, so I've decided to leave them all. Hopeful am I!
I lost all tree fruit to a late frost last year, so this year I am making plans to wrap this peach tree if that happens again. I really want some peaches! I got precisely zero last year.
I got going much earlier on my seedlings this year than last. Hopefully, I'll get more peppers, eggplant and okra. Last year I got almost none of those three crops.
I put a lot of my seeds directly into peat pots. The soil has a nice hit of organic fertilizer mixed in the bottom two inches, transplant mix with added calcium in the mid level, and seed starter mix for the top inch or so. Once the true leaves start coming, I'll fertilize with an organic liquid fertilizer. Hopefully, I won't have to transplant the seedlings into anything larger before they can go right into the ground. Perhaps this is all the wrong way to start seedlings, but I have the indoor space (because I need so few), so I thought I'd try it. I have ordered another two levels of grow light shelves, will put up a cold frame to house any seedlings that are raring to get out of the house, and won't have to transplant very many things into larger pots. We'll see!
seedlings
I saw my first bee yesterday! That's always an exciting moment. It means it's finally time to start cleaning up the edges of my vast property. This should take all of twenty minutes to complete, but I will let it go for another week to be sure the bees are all out and about.
The bee was buzzing around back in my second year scilla expanse, where even the lilies are pushing up out of the ground. Hopefully, the lilies are coming up early enough to triumph over those awful scarlet colored beetles that leave the lilies with holes seemingly made with a school teacher's hole puncher. They'd been so damaged last year, despite my heading out morning, noon and night to pick the beetles off, that I feared the lilies wouldn't come up at all.
I continue to wage war on vinca, which was everywhere when I first moved here. Vinca is very pretty, but very invasive. I pull great swaths of it up by the roots every spring and fall, to make room for more desirable plants.
I hastily planted pulmonaria last fall when someone gave me a few spindly and suffering plants. I didn't think it would survive, but apparently I planted it in a suitable place, because it's multiplying and blooming well.
Hip Hip Hooray for supermarket Hellebore! I bought one two years ago at the local Tops, and that thing is very happy where I put it, my first bloom in spring.
Here are shots of all those flowers, and of a couple others as well:
supermarket hellebore
scilla
vinca
pulmonaria
unknown
wintercress
The shot below probably looks like nothing to most of you, but I am very excited about what's going to happen there soon. I weeded the slope around the planter, leaving little more than dandelion, which should bloom very soon and make the slope a big bee magnet. Once the dandelion is done blooming, I plan to harvest those roots, cover the slope with fresh soil, and plant strawberries all over it.
Behind the planter are Jerusalem artichokes, two varieties of poppy, and burdock. Those reddish plants to the right of the planter are second year cranberries - I got half a dozen berries last year, and look forward to more of them this year. There's eyebright and thriving bee balm on the left of the planter, and red raspberries just off stage right.
The holly on the right, alas, will be leaving. I want to plant asparagus along that back fence. Any tips on how to get the roots out? Will a pick ax and well-placed body weight get the job done?
Future Strawberry Field
Below is my tiny vegetable plot in its entirety. The raised bed on the left is all prepared (peat, compost, composted manure, and earth worm castings) for my spring plantings of onions, carrots, beets, arugula, lettuce, radishes, and whatever else I think of. The middle bed has herbs in the front (which will be moved closer to my kitchen door), and garlic is coming up great guns in the back. The bed on the right will be a modified hugelkultur mound. I'll have a yard of lovely amended soil delivered next week, for this bed, my planters, and Strawberry Fields.
I was astonished at how much food this little yard produced last year, despite abject failures with peppers, eggplants, and okra. It's time to get excited about the bonanza I'll be getting this year, now that I know more, have started my seedlings earlier, and am gonna pay closer attention to nutrients and pH.
There's an awful lot to do, so I have hired a big, strong, strapping young man to come help out one Saturday soon. He'll help me get my deer and dog fences up, my squash arch and another raised bed assembled, soil put in the right places, and hopefully, have some time to install a new lock on my house's front door. Onward!
This is my entry to The Garden Hive's Monthly Garden Journal Challenge for April. Please come join us!!!
all images are mine
