Its the end of May and I finally have a garden thanks to the help of my sister.  The help of plants?  No not so much, but the help of digging the garden up after it was a play area for 2 months due to the early and warm spring. Here's what is in the garden (so far)

To the east Lara and the boys planted radishes (2 rows!!!) and a row of salad.  This was done May 5th the same day the garden was dug up.  As of this weekend there are now soybeans at that end of the garden, and a spaghetti squash plant.  Next are 3 peppers - the one in the middle is X the one to the south is Y.  What is Variety X and Variety Y?  They are peppers from a friend who mixed up some seed and is not sure if they are Anaheim or Jalapeno peppers....time will tell.  The pepper to the north is try 2 at a California wonder.  Next is a row of green beans.  Then is a pea gate waiting for peas to be planted - thought I needed bean seed so I purchased some more, turns out I needed pea seed.  Then there are 5 tomatoes - 2 romas, 1 cherry and 1 Big girl?  the other one came from Laura.  I  think there is also a jalapeno pepper and cabbage in that corner of the garden.  Oh and there is kohlrabi under the tomatoes, too.  In the 1/2 barrel there is tarragon, rosemary and another potted tomato. I planted basil here but it did not grow - just button weeds grew here...so I still need to get basil.

Spring 2012

We are off to an early start for spring 2012!!!!  It was 80 degrees the last days of winter and HUMID - yuck!!!  I like heat, not humidity and don't want to deal with it in March.  Needless to say we have an early start with all of the plants.  My earliest daffodils are almost done blooming.  My tulips and daffodils on the west side of the house are in full bloom.  The daffodils in the landscaped area look great - they will look even better in a year or two when they are in clumps.

Today's weather was perfect for gardening and yard work.  Jay mowed the lawn.  The boys HAD to go outside - not their choice, and little sister was sitting in the stroller "helping."  I started by digging out 3/4 of the Russian Sage.  They attract to many bees to be inches away from the sandbox....especially in late summer/ early fall.  So they are being moved.  I placed one in the center of the grasses and 1 under the other bedroom window. The last one I placed on the west side by the window well...where I dug up the day lilies.  They have growth already, but I was told as long as they are not in bloom they can be moved w/out much trouble. I spread them out through the yard - 3 variety's went were the Russian sage was growing, 1 down by the lilac and the last 2 varieties in the corner area by the fence.  If they grow there fine, if not fine.  Right know things look good.  We will see how everything looks in a few weeks!  The neighbor was looking for an excuse to go for a walk and volunteered to take the baby with her in the stroller.  That helped get a TON done for me!  Totally enjoyed digging in the dirt today.  Also trimmed the "ornamental" grass on the west side of the house....made the boys clean that up - before they cooked supper....with minimal help from Mom.

We cleaned up the back yard area 2 weeks ago, in winter, wearing t-shirts, and the kids probably had on shorts!!  This weather has been crazy.  It was a mild winter.  Hopefully we don't get to dry, so far we have had some spring rain, but I don't think it will take much to go to a drought.  (Oh, for the record I still expect to see snow at some point this spring!)

I need to go and look for some spinach/salad greens, radishes in the seeds.  I'm ready for stuff to be grown from the garden and our CSA does not start for another 6 weeks (not that I'm counting down the days or anything, ha ha ha.  Let's just hope they still have asparagus in MAY!!!)

Until next time....