Little Green Spears

I love seeing the little harbingers of spring popping up every year – the little green spears that start poking through the ground in late winter. It means once again spring is on its way and the weather will soon be warmer. The little corner bed that I cleaned and wasn’t able to completely replant last fall is giving forth never the less. The Snowdrops I planted have come up, as well as dozens of mystery daffodils. I must have collected over 100 bulbs last fall yet here they are still poking through, the sunny yellow buds beginning to form.

Yesterday I was surprised and pleased to see Forsythia, flowering cherry, Crocus, and other spots of spring color showing along streets that were still bare and brown less than a week ago. Typical of spring to jump out and shout “Surprise!” when you don’t catch it sneaking up on you.

Today is supposed to be strawberry planting day. We’ll see. At the moment it is pouring down rain. Planting in the mud is not my favorite thing. I’m not sure the space is big enough either. It seemed rather big last fall when we placed black plastic mulch to get rid of the grass, but now I’m not so sure how well one-hundred strawberry plants will fit. The mulch did make rototilling the soil quite easy though according to Josh.

It will be on to the garden after that. Fence posts need to be pulled on the east and south sides of the garden so we can expand our space. It won’t be a huge increase as we’re just adding about eight hundred to one thousand square feet. Then the fence will go back up, with sections being replaced by wood posts and woven wire fencing as we can. This seems the only fool proof way to keep the livestock out of the garden year round. It wouldn’t seem such a big deal in the winter if it wasn’t for the horses thinking it is such a good place to roll around. Winter is hard on the electric wire tape, and it always ends up destroyed by spring.

I ordered seeds yesterday too – lettuces, corn, carrots, and of course the lovely ‘racer’ jack-o-lantern pumpkins we grew last year. Okra, bell peppers, cabbages and pickling cucumbers are already sown in little peat pots in the house, and I’ll be adding tomato seeds today. Seed potatoes are in at the local farmer’s co-op. We’ll be growing the same varieties as last year, Yukon Gold, Lasota Reds, and Norkota – a variety I found comparable to russets, but tastier and they stored really well. I’m considering adding some sort of fingerling this year, but haven’t decided yet. Little seed packets waiting on warmer weather include peas, beans, summer squash, kohlrabi, slicing cucumbers, giant pumpkins, sunflowers, beets, radishes, winter squash – and that’s all I can remember right now. I’m looking forward to having a great garden this year.