My plan is to spend some serious time in the gardens a couple times a week. Really putting my back into it, so to speak and really get something accomplished. Great exercise and I want to prove to myself that I can keep everything running good and tidy. One of these days I’d like to consider a larger bit of ground and such and if I can’t keep the little moby estate nice, how could I ever do it with a larger piece of land?

It’s easy to get yourself a little overwhelmed with commitments and day to day life. Next thing you know, you’re letting little things slide. So it feels good to get out and mow, weed and water. And then stand back and admire the handiwork.

We took the afternoon and got started on a few tasks. I wanted to spend a good amount of time digging through the strawberry patch. It had gotten very weedy over the fall and early spring. I got it all weeded after a good hour or so. Once done, I planted the new strawberry plants and I hope they take. The ones from last year they are doing pretty good. I was surprised to see how many baby plants that the mothers had sent out. Hopefully these new ones will help to fill out the bed nicely.

Got some good compost and mulch around them to help cut down on the weed hopefully. I’d really like to see that bed all filled in good in the next couple months. Going to really work at keeping the weeds down this year.

Jessy’s blueberries faired not as well. One plant is doing well, but the other two are really fighting to survive. We cut back the dead wood and hopefully that will help them to devote more energy to the greenwood that is left. We got one new one to add to the bed, and hope that we can nurture that one a little more this year.

Got two more grape vines to join our little french girls along the shed. Marie and Louise also look like they didn’t fare too well, but when I clipped back some of the deadwood, I found green and little teeny buds around the root. I think like many of the ‘dead’ perennials, some of these perennial fruits need a year or two to really set in and start to flourish!

Maggie mowed the lawn for me, and it was funny because she was mowing I heard her singing at the top of her lungs quite happily. It was funny because she thought no one could hear her! She’s such a fun kid sometimes, when she’s happy, the whole world knows it, but when she’s not, well, the world knows as well! Thankfully, she’s usually fair to middlin’ as they say and happy most the time. Still got to do a little weed whacking… when you go and make a land maze of a small plot of land with beds and trees and all, it make it a little tricky to mow in a nice even way! The little electric trimmer I got last year works like a CHARM… and helps to keep things looking nice.

Jessy finished up packing orders and loaded up the car, and then came to join us. She was in charge of planting onions in one of the south side beds. It’s the first official planting in the beds… everything else is nesseled in the cold frames. But I think it’s safe to plant the first 100 sets of the candy red sweet onions we got to try out! They looked super good in the catalog, and we’ll find out if they like the new sunny spot this year. Last year our onions were planting in just a little too shady spot and just really did not flourish.

The garlic is doing well, looks pretty cool. I’m thinking about digging it up and moving it to a sunnier spot. Not sure yet where. But I’ll find a good spot. We set up the last 100 onion sets in a little basket of compost and popped them into a cold frame to hang out for a bit until I have a good spot for them.

I’m totally surprised about the spinach that survived the winter! Some tough stuff for sure. I think I’m going to harvest a few leaves for a salad sometime next week because that sounds delightful. A fresh salad, with some fresh eggs and local bacon! How great that will be.

Well, everything got a good watering in, all the new trees and plants. Everything in the cold frames is doing well. Saw a couple new little pepper seedlings trying to get going. Thanks to everyone that has been writing to me and letting me know that they had the same experiences with starting peppers from seeds. Sometimes it takes even a month for them to actually sprout!

When we were all done, we took the orders to the post office for the day and the girls got ice cream at the local Mr. Freeze and then we came back and just hung out in the nice little yard. It was a perfect end to the afternoon. Luna posed for me while I was out back looking at all the lilac bushes on our border with the neighbors behind us. They are just about to start blooming like crazy! Can’t wait… Love lilacs!

Our own three little lilacs are doing pretty good and are heavy with blooms. They are only about 3 feet tall, but they’ll do well this year, I’m sure of it. In a couple years, this place is really going to be nice. Can’t wait.