Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Come into my garden...

Spring is officially here, as far as I'm concerned!

Sunday is the average last frost day here. My seedlings are hardened off* and I just did the following:

1) mowed the front lawn,
2) turned the kitchen compost,
3) shoveled the good kitchen compost into a container for later use,
4) turned my sunniest bed (incorporating the rye that had grown there over the winter,
5) hauled some very heavy bags of topsoil over to near where I want them to end up, and
6) began the first grass and leaf compost pile.

I also went berserk at Wrong Aid, of all places, buying even more seeds.

Looks like summer planting starts this weekend....whew.

Meanwhile, take a gander at the Spring garden and how it's progressing.

*I was unable to get the ground cherries to germinate past the itsy two-leaf stage. Also, I (weep, sniffle) killed my poor Cherokee Purple seedlings by sunburning them. The horror.

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Strawberries
Last year I didn't even get one berry. Maria gave me some this fall, which I promptly put into this container. Here's hoping!



Grape Hyacinth
This just popped up in the middle of the yard between my neighbor's house and mine. I wonder who planted it and when?



Camellia
Another wonderful specimen I didn't plant. This year they've been gorgeous. There are two bushes flanking the front porch. The south bush (pictured below) is huge. The north one, not so much. They've both faded at this point, but are still beautiful.



Mystery
No, not the heinous vinyl siding, nor (what I presume is) the dryer vent or hot water pips. No, look a little closer at that foilage. What's....that....LUMP? Can you guess? (I know already. This is a test. And a bit of overwhelming excitement)



Rutabagas? Turnips?
I can't remember what these are, to tell you the truth. They're quite nice looking, don't you think? I tossed some cilantro in there as well, but you probably can't see it. If you look very closely, you can see that there's some volunteer lettuce. :-)



Beets

OK, so sue me. It's extremely difficult to frame a shot when it's sunny out and the computer screen is like a mirror. With all of these shots I essentially pointed and hoped I had any of the intended subject lined up. These took ages to germinate, and though I planted them in gorgeous patterns, now I have no idea which varieties will be which.



Peas, Romaine, Buttercrunch
Two styles of peas--sugar snap and english shelling peas. Yum. Favas to the left of the Buttercrunch, casting a shadow. Also casting a shadow is the aforementioned laptop. See what I go through for you?


Carrots
Look what finally deigned to come play! This is again one of those "who the hell knows what all's in there" situations. Some of them are Atomic Red (Thanks, Laurie!), and others are normal.


Stew
What you can't see here is the copious amounts of dirt crusted all over my body. I have it on my hands, my face, my chest. I love it. Feels good...