Spring Begins

Spring has come early this year and the plants are showing it! I'm really excited about my garden this year. We've obtained some good compost/manure that's been spread over the whole garden, and Nick's planning on building the rest of my terraced beds so it will look a lot nicer. We like to add new stuff every year, which usually means a trip to the nursery, but with spring starting so soon it's kind of too late to plant any trees.

I'm really getting into canning and making my own stuff, and that includes growing my own stuff. I couldn't resist trying to grow an avocado tree, and I'm really excited at how well it's doing.

 The stalk is about 5 inches, so another inch and I'm supposed to cut it back to 3 inches. That'll be hard when the little leaves are so pretty!

I've also started my milk jug seedlings, and they're working out really well. Of course, I haven't really tested the greenhouse effects of the milk jug yet because it hasn't really frozen since I've planted them. Everything has come up except my bell peppers and banana peppers, but that's not too surprising. Peppers seem to take a while to come up and they may want some more warmth.

 This is my first year to grow tomatillo from seed, and so far they've all come up and are doing well.

Our asparagus is coming up more and more now. It's our first year we can harvest, and we ate our first few spears last night. I'm shocked we can grow them so well in our solid rock iron soil, but they've made it just fine.

Our fruit trees are in full bloom. It's our first year to have a pear tree bloom, so maybe we'll get some pears this year!

 This is our first year to get blooms on this particular plum. The other plum tree is already losing it's blooms. Plums are coming soon!

 

 Ryder has fallen in love with animals now. Every time he gets around them he starts laughing out loud. Our garden shares a fence with the dog pen, and every time we go out to check on plants we have to go visit the puppies. He just laughs and laughs.

Our new addition this year instead of trees was strawberries. Even better, they were free. Nick's grandpa gave us his runners. About 50 feet of strawberries!!

 Some already have blooms! Looks like we might get strawberries this year. I'll have to post when I make my favorite jam, strawberry.

Spring has just begun, there's so much more to do and much more to plant in the future. Looks like a busy season in store! Hopefully the weather will cooperate better than it did last year. Pray for rain!