Spring! Spring! Spring!

Finally!

I remember the first year we were here, how spring stuttered into being. Our good friends Cuckoohead and Danny had come for the week of N's birthday, and they never saw Mt. Rainier. The very next week, I recall, the clouds parted and it stayed heavenly the rest of the summer. Each year since has proven that out so maybe I will start some in-house mythology about ~N~ bringing the sun with him. For his toddler years, he always did say "Mommy, I made the sun for you!" It drove his sister NUTS, but of course, Mommy loved it.

Yesterday was so sunny and beautiful that the kids ran around in the sprinklers and ate ice cream cones outside. I potted a bunch of flowers and realized all our beautiful seedlings are ready for transplant. It feels good to be ahead of the game this year.

Strawberry Bed is installed and mulched. I also planted some lettuce (good companion plants), a canna lily, and some Brussels sprouts right by the deck. The lily and the sprouts should grow pretty tall, which will give them an ornamental quality for the deck.

Back Bed is dug and the soaker hoses are laid. The purchased tomatoes and onion sets went in a week or two ago, and I added squash and some bush beans last week. The remaining seedlings will go in sometime before we go camping this week.

Side bed-- which was our primary bed last year-- is not ready yet. I am currently double digging it, and the soaker hose is not covered yet. This is where the shadier things will go, although the work P-daddy did on the overhanging plants has opened up that garden more significantly than I expected.

The children have their own garden bed this year, which is right outside there window. G has already planted a long row of corn and watermelons. Today I will give her some bush Romanos to plant in a row. The child ate our entire crop last year, and no I am not kidding. She (and her homies) really did.

This year, I will be entering the kids into photo contests (see the link above). It's combining two of my favorite things, so it will be fun just to submit something.

On Mother's Day, we went to Rosedale gardens and I talked to a guy who helped us a lot when we moved in to this house. He'd sworn by a certain garden book and said "This is your Gardening Bible." The next year, my CSA farmer Terry showed me the same book and said "This is your Bible if you want have a good garden." The problem is, it's 50.00. So I checked it out once, but I have never been able to justify the purchase. He asked me again on Sunday if I'd bought it and I abashedly said no.

"Then I have a surprise for you!" He went into the shed and pulled out his battered copy and handed it to me. "I bought a new one, but I couldn't bear to throw this one away."

Happy, happy, happy ~L~!