Spring Has Sprung

 

March 24

With full intentions of beginning work on the altar project in earnest, I went to the local big box wood store, my sole supplier of plywood and found their selection to be very lacking. So I went back home and placed my order online for some superior looking product, hopefully, which I will not wait patiently a week for delivery.

Meanwhile, I did a tour of our property looking for signs of spring and found some. Above is a flat of basil in our greenhouse that is indeed starting to show life. We planted three early flats using leftover seeds and none of the three every sprouted. To be fair, our unheated greenhouse received at least six days of below freezing weather during the early morning hours which may have played a part. The above flat was one we replanted a little over a week ago along with me replanting the tomatoes. They haven't shown life yet but it takes a little bit longer for them to sprout.

March 24

In the garden, the surest signs of life is the garlic patch. I didn't get the garlic until really late to be planting them and didn't want to mess with the tiller for so little so I just stuck them on the unused portion of my wife's strawberry beds. They will be out by summer anyway and I will replant them elsewhere in the fall.

In the other part of the garden, the lettuce is peaking above the ground but is so tiny yet, I can't quite get a good picture of it. Ironically though, I can row it through my dining room window in oblique lights of morning and evening. The peas are sprouting and sending down roots but haven't poked their heads above surface yet as are the carrots. 

March 24

I was most worried about the two peach trees we planted late last fall as they didn't have a lot of time with leaves on to put energy into root development. But both have lots of buds on them which is a great sign. The various sour cherry trees also have buds on them along with the apple trees. So our orchard looks like it will grow another year, however, fruiting may be slim as all our still fairly young trees.

March 24

One of our earliest trees we planted on this property, the service berry tree above is looking good too. It's blooms are always one of the first of spring around here and so shouldn't be too far off.

Finally, one more shot from our orchard of our special apple tree we planted in memory of one of my wife's cousins who took her life a few years ago. It too is showing signs of life. My hope is that once it starts producing fruit, to send a box of it's apples to the cousin's mother every year in memory of her daughter. She also usually sends us a box of fruit from her more exotic southern Virginia garden every year.

The grass is starting to green up and my lawnmower has been serviced and is ready to go. I have repeatedly picked up sticks in the yard in preparation for that first mowing but we keep getting some very windy days here and reseeding our lawn with more branches to pick up.