How Does Your Garden Grow

It has been absolutely gorgeous here for the last day and a half. It has actually stopped raining for more than six hours. Of course all of the rain has really made the garden take off. Of course our strawberries didn't really produce. It's been three years since we've planted them. I see little tiny berries start, but they never turn red. The rogue radishes that cropped up are already going to seed. Of course, one of us has to be home to actually start harvesting.

I also think our raspberries are going to have a had time producing. The weeds have almost completely taken over, so I'll have to see if I can't transplant some of the younger plants to somewhere else. We have a couple of spots that need plants, so maybe they will do better there.

Rain, Rain

So, I have cut our seed potatoes Saturday so they can "cure" before they are planted. We were hoping to have them planted Tuesday, but alas, they still sit "curing" on my counter. It thunderstormed Monday night and rained on and off on Tuesday. There was even a chance of tornadoes. Today, it has been raining on and off again. Pretty soon it's going to be May and we're going to have a very late crop of potatoes. If my prepared potatoes are still good, that is. We still have a large quantity of seed potatoes, so we have an ample supply to try again. I don't know if they keep from year to year or not. I guessing not.

My husband and I aren't completely new to gardening, it's just been so long since either of us remembered planting some of the stuff we've decided to try this year. We've also decided to try the hanging tomato plants in hopes that the rabbits won't eat them off the vine. Of course gardening for us is always and exercise in patience, and somewhat futility, since there are so many rabbits in town. We're thinking about live trapping them and taking to them to the wildlife care center. We may even get some stray cats that we'll take to the shelter.

For now, we just wait for the rain to stop long enough to work in the garden again. I have some wild hollyhocks that need transplanting since they are in with our strawberries. But our strawberries looked to have survived another winter and our rhubarb has started to come up. Maybe this will be the year I can make strawberry-rhubarb preserves!

Our Lawn

My husband and I did some yard work yesterday. I went around and collected all the garbage (we live on a main road through town) and came up with a full garbage bag. Jason raked up the leaves and sticks in the front yard. He ended up with a very heaping wheelbarrow full. We decided to get an outdoor fire pot so we could burn the leaves and sticks in stead of hauling them somewhere. Once we got our fire pot put together, it burned merrily. Of course we didn't burn the whole wheelbarrow full seeing as it was starting to get late. We'll continue to burn it throughout the week. Now we get to work on the backyard and our gardens. I have some flowers to plant/transplant and more weeding around the strawberries. We have creeping Charlie everywhere, so it seems like weeding is a never ending chore.