Enjoying Being Outside

garden herb 022 We are enjoying being outside again. Checking out the herb and flower garden in the middle of our massive garden is fun. Things may look a little grim right after all the snow melts, but no worries. To identify what plant you are looking at, I label everything and place “birds of a feather” together. For instance, my herbal teas are all in one area.

Annuals that re-seed themselves are placed to allow them to drop their seeds all by themselves, which is a great time saver for us. Here are some of those self-seeding annuals below.

Basil looks like this right now.

basil 010 But will transform into this again after the seeds they dropped come back up. basil 007

Borage is a self-seeder that looks pretty bare now. borage 003

But it will have all of its lavender flowers smiling at us in a while.

borage 002

Chamomile is an annual that looks like a hurricane wiped out the area now. chamomile 013

But, it will look like this later on.

chamomile 008

The perennials come back after winter hibernation, so they have a permanent strategic location. They may look puny but things perk right up as the warmth returns.

Hyssop now, hyssop 007 and last year. hyssop 004 Lavender now, lavender 009 lavender 006 Parsley now parsley 002 parsley 001

Valerian now. valerian 01 valerian 003 You get the idea, don’t you.

Snow is Gone

The snow is gone and here is Peter, rototilling between the asparagus rows. They don’t look like much right now but in no time they will be sending up those delicious little green shoots to tantalize our tongues.

asparagus 021

Tree Removal

tree removal 01

We have two major changes we will make to the garden this year. One is the removal of a real nice black pine tree that creates a very large dry spot on one side of the garden.

tree removal 02 It is a shame to cut him down, but, the battle with water resources has become too much for him to remain. Standing here, you can see the strawberry patch that will be moved afterwards in the foreground.

Strawberry Patch

strawberry 043

The strawberries don’t look real good right now, but they too shall have some glorious flavors to offer later on. After the tree is removed we will construct a raised bed where that tree was (50ft long x 3ft wide x 2-3ft high). Then, we will move the strawberry patch into it. strawberry 041

Our old age requires that we try to save our backs from spending so much time harvesting hunched over the berries. We will use metal from a torn-down shed, and pipe for the rails so the size will fluctuate with what materials we scrounge up.

So, it is safe to say that the season for growing, or at least the season before as we prepare to get growing, has begun.

Beginning Garden Camden

camden grange 01 Peter and I attended the Camden Grange (www.camdengrange.org) Beginning Gardening meeting on 3/19/22 Saturday 1-3pm.

Jim McGinty is who taught the class, with many years of gardening knowledge. He covered information about local methods that work the best for our home garden needs here in zone 5ish. We covered all the basic gardening topics like; the garden, the soil, weeds, mulching, insect/disease problems, and references.

The meeting was very helpful and a lot of fun. We got to visit with others interested in gardening from around here. Look at how many people were there.

The Camden Grange has a FaceBook page and their classes are all there, they fill up fast, so sign-up if you want to go. We wanted to go to the tree pruning class on the 26th, Saturday, but it is already full. Dang.

Pete and I are going to check out the Elk-Camden Garden Keepers who meet monthly at the Camden Grange on the second Tuesday (March-October). It sounds like another really good group of local gardeners to learn from. We are beginning to really love being retired.

Can you guess the most popular car in our area?

Subaru is over 50% of what is in the parking lot after the meeting.