Scrap Wood Becomes More Raised Beds

There's so much happening here it's hard to find time to post. Not only is it gardening season, it's also migration and wildflower season! We are getting out about everyday looking for new avian arrivals and new blooms. It's such fun! We visited Mohican State Park this weekend where Steve saw a Canada Warbler....Jennifer missed it but hopefully next time.

We continue to improve our garden beds to make them better able to handle excessive moisture, which we tend to have in the spring. More scavenged boards and logs line our newly worked beds.

Some beds are getting a new batch of soil due to a persistent aster we let go too far in the garden. We will fill this bed with soil from our compost pile and the cardboard will help to compost the asters in place.

Sugarsnap peas are coming up as well as the beets and kohlrabi.

All the greens under our low tunnels are doing super. We took off the plastic for spring and left the ramie fabric in place to prevent our brassicas from getting completely covered in cabbage white caterpillars.

The strawberries are flowering so soon we will have fruits! We still have strawberry puree from last year, which Steve used in an excellent vinaigrette for our lunch salad. We will post that recipe soon.

This year we put in some new strawberries, a variety called Sparkle that comes highly recommended from a friend. Oh my, we can't wait for berries!!

The chickens are having fun playing in the mud after the almost 4 inches of rain last night. WOW. We needed rain and we are getting used to the fact that when it rains, it really rains. There doesn't seem to be a such thing as gentle spring showers anymore.

Our potatoes are finally sending up some leaves. See the plant in the middle of the photo? That's the potato. The rest are weeds on our garden weeding to do list. It's pretty weedy in a few of our beds....all soil from our compost pile, which obviously is not getting hot enough!

We are harvesting lots of asparagus and rhubarb now. We made yummy quesadillas for dinner with sauteed asparagus, onions, kale, parmesan, sea salt and oregano. We planted new asparagus last year to supplement our first planting and it's been hard to let all those shoots go to flower and not eat them! We have to remind ourselves the wait will be worth it.

There's still lots to finish in the garden before planting time. Has anyone yet figured out how to make more time in the day??