Into The Vegetable Garden

The time was over-ripe to get spring crops planted.  Weather has not been cooperative so here it is April 1st and I'm just planting for the first time in 2014!  Yikes!

Here's the before I started working photo.

Here's my after.

Seedlings of bok choy and Green Ice lettuce.

Seedlings of Butter Crunch lettuce, more bok choy, and mesclun seeds planted.

One large bed of snow peas.

I have two beds of garlic planted last fall.

In other news the frogs have been busy.  I can hear the peepers (tree frogs) as I type this.

The pond was very full from rain over the weekend.

Photo from Saturday.

The goldfish are loving the sun.

Frog eggs.

I tried to capture some of the tadpoles in there which were a surprise to me.  I don't know when it was warm enough for those eggs to be laid.

These daffodils will be the first to bloom since they get the best sun and warmth near the house.

View of the newest garden expansion.  More on that as it develops.

One final photo or two of crocuses.  They won't be there long.  The ground hog likes them.

Wordless Wednesday - Sunrise!

Wordless Wednesday

Off the Checklist

Every gardener has one: a checklist of things to do, a checklist of changes to be made, a checklist of ideas to try, etc, etc.  Rather than sharing any one of those checklists, I'm going to share items that have been checked off.

Checked off from the changes to be made list - redo walkway path in the front garden.  Jim of Walnut Fields Landscaping came very highly recommended by Sun Nursery so I contacted him in late January we came to an agreeable price and yesterday with snow melted he made the transformation.

Nice large stepping stones.

Checked off from the things to do list - cutting back old growth.  I pruned the butterfly bushes and hydrangeas in the front garden.  And cut back the grasses in the pond garden.

Before of the grasses at the pond.

Today is to be another warmer day so maybe more from the checklist will be check off.

And look at what has come out in the spring sunshine.

First Day of Spring

It's 60º outside with a strong March wind, but it's time for a walk around the house.

It's hard to believe it looked like this just three days ago.  5 inches of snow!  May look like that again next week if forecast is correct.

Stepping out on the back porch my lettuce and bok choy seedlings are getting their first exposure to the outside.  I never did get the spinach to germinate.  I hope I have better luck when I sow it directly.

Looking left towards the south east and the fire pit on the deck.

Looking straight ahead toward the south.  No sign of new leaves.

Looking west toward the perennial garden.

There is some spring color there.  These crocuses managed to survive being buried by the snow on Monday.

Daffodils nearest the house are the farthest along.

Looking back towards the house, it all looks pretty desolate still.

On the north side of the house

the ground is full of these holes.

What animal is doing the digging?  Fox?  Raccoon? Skunk?  And what is it after?

Outside the front door this garden will be getting a makeover starting tomorrow hopefully

with the replacement of the walkway I did myself many years ago.  Later a nursery will replace the lavender with another hardier variety, remove the Russian sage in favor of pink muhley grass and Japanese beauty berry.  The butterfly bushes and hydrangeas (on the right above) to the left (below) will remain.

The vegetable garden is showing little life.  The only thing planted is garlic and its just showing green shoots.

As I type this the frogs are just now warming up their croaks.  The goldfish are enjoying the warm sun.

This pond garden bed will be redone this year.  I'll move the various plants I put in there attempting to make a rock garden on the hillside down from the screen porch.  The liriope at the top edge and the water irises along the pond will be allowed to spread and meet up.

Back to the back door.  Almost time for the seedlings to return inside after their first exposure.

It's to be 70º on Saturday but snow in the forecast for Tuesday.