Tabula Rasa

Finally!  Wednesday (March 14)  proved to be a fine day to get back to work on clean up and preparation for this year's garden. I spent most of the afternoon gathering up leaves, pulling out some chickweed and other pest plants, but mostly dividing and replanting last summer's strawberry runners. I hadn't been as conscientious last year as I should have been, and, as a result, the strawberries became overcrowded. I believe this caused a falloff in the berry production which we saw at that time. Finally, the blackberries got their annual trim, taking off last year's spent branches. There's much more to do, but it's a start! A few more dry days would be a welcome assist.

                                     Our garden space in mid-March

Right now, the space is in its "blank slate" state waiting to nurtured into a productive garden, much like a Gullberg (Hmmm...Mike or Maria?) canvas waiting for a brush and paint.  The lumber showing in the bottom right corner of the picture is the front edge of a four foot wide by twelve foot long bed which will primarily host green and wax beans as well as the sugar snap peas.

A big part of getting some early green in this garden will be starting leafy vegetables such as spinach and  several varieties of lettuce, as well as the parsley, basil, and cilantro shown in the top of the picture. There are plenty of other plants that will do well in the cool spring weather. These are just our favorite starters. They are planted in 24" containers so they may easily be brought in for the night if the weather turns colder, which it surely will sometime over the next five or six weeks. Right now, they're just basking in the sunshine. We'll have more to go out in the next few weeks. The brick and glass are there to keep squirrels from digging up the seedlings.

Our daffodils bloomed earlier this week....a little later than our friends and family to the south of us, but the new burst of color is much appreciated and adds to the anticipation of the upcoming spring season.

This is also that time of year when the herbs wake up and start reaching for the sun! The chives always seem to be the earliest, but I can see sprouts coming out on the marjoram, thyme, and oregano. We left the rosemary out for the winter because it has become so large, but the mild winter had no effect on it....it's bigger than ever!

Thanks for taking a look! Your comments are always welcome! I'll be back again in a week or so.  Hope to see you then! Got a question or topic? Post it in the comments block below.

For those of you who have not read the story (and actually care) about how I came to be a life long gardener, you can click the link below and find out.

 www.greenprints.com/en/pdf/overtherainbow.pdf   And by contract, I must state "(First published by Green Prints "The Weeder's Digest", No. 78, Summer 2009)"