Things are Springing

It is a crazy early spring we're having this year, isn't it!? Bad news: it's time to cut the grass already. :(

Good news: it's just plain exciting to look around at everything else popping up. I mean I know all these things are supposed to survive the winter and come back even though they look so dead. But still, when it happens, it's like a miracle.

Leaves on the bittersweet and trumpet vines. Peony popping up--I even caught them soon enough that I transplanted three clumps from the woods (where they love to taunt me) into my gardens. The tulips, dafs and hyacinths are done already, but the allium and lilies are coming up already!

Troy's garden is a lot more work than mine has been. I looked out the window and saw this the other day:

It looked like a garbage crew had visited the west garden. (Picking up or dropping off, I wasn't sure!) Then I realized it was his bags of shredded paper. He was getting ready to blend it into the soil with the Rototiller.

A few days later, the job was nearly done:

On another part of the garden, Troy's been trying a different method of weed control. He's been putting down cardboard boxes and covering them with the mulch we still have from the maple trees taken down in 2007:
When it's time to plant, he'll just stab a hole through the cardboard and plant into the soil. It's a lot of work, but he's hoping it will pretty much eliminate weeding. Plus the cardboard will add to the pathetic soil.

His seedlings in the dining room are doing well under his lavish attention:
He's got hot peppers, cabbage, Russian tomatoes, broccoli, cucumber, and watermelon started.

The fruit trees are greening up. Only one dead peach tree which the supplier will be replacing this spring. Tom, you'll be happy to hear that the two peach trees we got from you are looking the best of all!

This morning before church, I picked what I thought was the first lonely sprig of asparagus. Then coming in from the car after church, I saw that my other plant had two already.
So I heated them with butter in the microwave and had them with lunch. Very tasty.

And finally, Troy has been diligently weeding the strawberry patch and tells me we may have fruit before May!
Can you even imagine? Strawberries in April! That will be one to remember.