I am steadily loosening all my beds (960 square feet of veggie space to conquer!) with the aid of the trusty broadfork, and pulling out all those quackgrass roots (I wish all my perennials were as hearty as this overwintered weed). It’s slowing me down quite a bit to be so thoroughly weeding as I go, but I have to get a head start on the grass, or it quickly takes over. I’ve been trying to step back from the work, though, to take in some of this spring beauty! Our flowering pear tree never gets old, of course. The whole tree is just covered in clusters of white flowers.
The couple days of rain slows my weeding down as we shouldn’t be walking in the beds when everything is wet or we risk compacting the fluffy soil. I usually don’t walk in the beds at all, and they are treated more like raised beds in this way, but the broadfork is a small exception. I am slowly getting more seeds sown {beets, lettuce, arugula, radish} even though it has required going out with a headlamp once I finally get the kids to sleep. And in other seed news – the ever-speedy turnips have sprouted!
This steady, gentle rain is such a respite for our small spring starts. My onions were looking TERRIBLE since transplanting was followed by scorching summer temps – a high of 89 in early May! Honestly, the rain is good for my household, too. It means I spend more time indoors and I am therefore forced to attend to some of my responsibilities outside of the garden – like making food to feed the crew and tending to the many, many messes that only a very creative 7yo and a toddler could manage!
Although little miss R is exposed to a lot of homemade cooking, she doesn’t often help of her own volition. To remedy this, we’ve established cooking on Tuesday afternoons as part of our homeschool. It is so fun to do, she learns a lot and there is always a solid dose of math in there, too. She whipped up a delicious marinade all on her own for some meat we are going to cook and slice to just keep in the freezer for quick summer meals. We also made a huge batch of delicious dal that will last us a couple meals this week, plus some for the freezer for those days when I don’t cook because the weather keeps us out all day. Prep for the summer busy is underway!
Apart from our pear tree, it has been so fun to watch most of the perennials come to life that we planted last year after our lead fiasco. I am very sad to report that the three elderberries didn’t survive the long harsh winter, but many other things did.
What’s growing in your spring garden? Did you lose any perennials this winter?
