Spring in my yard

It has been a cold spring, but things are finally humming along. Mike and I moved the plants out to the greenhouse and I have dug the mulch out all the beds. I am really excited about a number of the bulbs I have found coming up.

My asparagus came up yesterday (two stalks so far), and more and more garlic keeps coming up. In addition, all the fall bulbs I put in last year are humming along. I have tulips about an inch up in most beds and my Mom's daffodils are up, although they did not bloom last year. A number of grape hyacinths are up, although they are not budding.

Most of my seedlings are continuing to do well. We have a huge crop of garlic and I started some beans, beets and kohlrabi for my first square foot bed. I will start some corn tomorrow and then all my seeding is done.  I did almost no flowers this year except morning glory and nasturtium, but the veggies are great.

It is hard to believe we have about three weeks left until planting in the garden because I have so many projects in mind. I have tried to convince Mike we should put some things into the side bed early, but he seems doubtful. I want to dig out more of the front yard so that I can move one of the rhubarbs up there, and Mike has plans to get some rocks from James. It should be a busy, fun spring. I predict my first flowers will be chives, which are already budding.

This week Mike put up a second clothesline and I started drying things outside. It was great to dry to loads at once, and I have enough room now that I can do 4 loads totally in a day. I am so excited about all the possibilities in my yard.

Double digits

Saskatoon hit double digits today - 14 degrees.  There was a hefty wind, but it was still glorious. My deck has been clear of snow for 4 days, so I got out my patio furniture, set up my hammock on a snow-free patch of lawn and  spent the day in the yard. So many of my spring things started this week. I've started hanging my laundry outside, where it drys in a third of the time it takes in the basement. I am biking to work and walking at lunch in the sun.

Today I cleaned out some of my beds and left some others covered in leaves. Most of my beds look like the one on the left - all brown. I have a heavy mulch of leaves and there is no sign of growth. However, the snow has been off them for less than a week and it is still freezing at night.  There is a potential for snow in a couple of days.  I know I should leave those beds alone, but I want to see if anything is up.

When I clean out a bed, I can see some of the green coming up. In this bed there are even a few little green buds!  That makes me so happy. I only cleaned the ones that have south exposure, as they have the most reflected heat off of the walls and can handle a little bit of cold (or so I tell myself).

I spent a lot of my day in the greenhouse. I have rocket and peas transplanted out there and I seeded spinach, cilantro and green onions last week. Anwyn cleaned all the windows for me today, and Mike hung the bubble wrap last Monday.  That means it isn't frosting in there at night, although it still gets below zero. In another couple of weeks it will get warm enough to move my bedding plants out, which is a good thing.  Jodi and Brad are coming to visit and might struggle to sleep with the grow light.

 Today I transplanted the the last of my seed plugs into pots, and I now have the grow table completely full. There isn't room for even one more pot. My tomatoes have been starting to dry out a lot, so they really needed to be transplanted. I am growing sub-arctic maxi, yellow pear and a red cherry, all of which were ready for larger pots, and will outgrow them in another month.

In the Greenhouse

Today I was out in the greenhouse planting cold hardy greens in the unfrozen dirt (everything is still frozen outside). I planted spinach and cilantro in the south side and a little on the north side. I also planted some experimental green onions, although I think they will struggle to be ready on time.

As Pip and I were planting, I noticed that my garlic is already up just outside the greenhouse. I have never had it come up so quickly before, but this year I planted real planting garlic designed for my climate. It's pretty impressive, as the snow recedes and the garlic green resurface. They remind me of my iris that way. We had our first warm day (a high of 3 on Friday)!

The grow table continues to do well.  Mike has a fan going on it to prevent the plants getting to leggy.