Spring has finally arrived at the farm after several rainy and muddy winter months, and I can’t wait to get back to gardening! I’ve already been doing some garden clean-up, including dragging all of the fir branches that blew down into the garden during the wind storm down to the fire pit. I’ve spread compost in the raised beds and done some weeding and pruning in the veggie garden and flower beds, while my little helpers, Millie, Salt-n-Pepa have been keeping me company. They love to follow me up to the garden, where there is lots of loose dirt and compost to scratch around in looking for bugs, and the kale has sprouted some delicious new leaves for the girls to nibble on. The raspberries and blueberries have been pruned, and I’ve cleaned up the strawberry and asparagus bed. The rhubarb and artichokes have leafed out, the garlic has sprouted, and the veggie garden is starting to look like a veggie garden again.
The cool season veggie seeds have been started in the greenhouse – onions, leeks, spinach, chard, and kale. I’ve also started a flat of perennial flowers that I saved seeds from last year to add to our late summer/fall bee garden – coneflower, calendula, coreopsis, bee balm, gloriosa daisy, and blazing star. The seed potatoes have started to sprout and are almost ready to plant. In a couple of weeks I’ll start the warm season veggie seeds – tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, and pumpkins. I have a new pumpkin bed planned for this summer below the greenhouse, which will give the pumpkin vines plenty of room to grow. The bee hives have been active on these warm sunny days, and in a couple of weeks I am planning to split one of the hives and start our third hive. I also want to make some preparations for hatching chicks up in the main coop this year, and potentially setting up a separate pen in the front pasture in case Eleanor or Prudence decide they want to hatch eggs. There is lots on the to do list at this time of year, now let’s just hope we get some sunny days so we can get to it!