Gardening is one of my all time favorite things to do. Nothing is as soothing to me than a warm summer evening spent pulling weeds or picking vegetables. Or maybe it is the satisfaction I find at filling my dinner table with items fresh from the picking and tended with love. Or maybe it is sinking into bed after a long hot Saturday digging and tilling and pulling and planting. Or maybe it is taking a walk on a cool summer morning enjoying the flowers and their fresh faces. Or maybe it is watching and waiting for the first seedlings of spring to make their appearance.
Whatever it is, I love it, it makes me happy.
This is sage, for my newly redesigned herb garden.
New this year is Celery and Celery root. The secondary leaves are starting to appear, and hopefully they will be big and robust in 4 weeks when I can plant my tender veggies. In my neck of the woods the danger of a hard freeze sticks around until the second week in May. So only the hardiest of vegetable get to be outside now.
Outside, the fist cabbage seedlings are coming up.
(If you look really close you can see the seedlings in the picture below, this is a purple variety of cabbage, so it blends in)
The picture at the top is Spinach. It is a little late this year, due to the stinking varmints (cats) that think my garden boxes are their toilet.
(don’t tell me to add pepper, it doesn’t work with the felines that roam my neighborhood)
This patch of spinach was dug up twice before I found my garden cloth to cover them up.
(GRRRR)
My winter vegetable are doing great, the garlic is lush and green, and my carrots are growing thick tops. The carrots will all be harvested in the next week or so. I have already planted this years first crop of carrots in other beds.
And last, but not least, to my great joy….the bare root raspberries are starting to leaf out.
The picture at the top is Spinach. It is a little late this year, due to the stinking varmints (cats) that think my garden boxes are their toilet.(don’t tell me to add pepper, it doesn’t work with the felines that roam my neighborhood)
This patch of spinach was dug up twice before I found my garden cloth to cover them up.
(GRRRR)
Below, if you look real close you can see the first leaves of my early turnips. Turnips love the cold spring air. My family doesn’t really love turnips, but we are going to work on that this year. They are easy to grow and very good for you, a valuable addition to a garden.
My winter vegetable are doing great, the garlic is lush and green, and my carrots are growing thick tops. The carrots will all be harvested in the next week or so. I have already planted this years first crop of carrots in other beds.
And last, but not least, to my great joy….the bare root raspberries are starting to leaf out.
so when you ate the dandelion, did you just pick them, wash them and east them? or what? what are other ways i can consume them? did you only consume the leaves and not the actual flower?
Lisa, I just picked, washed and ate. Since I picked only the plants in my own yard, I knew they had not been sprayed, so I was very confident with just a quick wash in cold water.
We only ate the leaves and I will warn you they can be a bit bitter, so I mixed them in with regular romain lettuce in a salad. Don't eat the flower, they are super bitter and the stem is especially nasty.
You can also drink Dandelions in a tea, which is very good for you. I have heard of people cooking them, like you would spinach or turnip greens.
Did I answer your questions?
Aimee
I am very eager to get out in the garden and do some digging of my own. Jason keeps telling me that he needs to do an oil change on the mower so he can mulch down leaves and what not from last year before he can dig up the beds. Sigh, I may just end up doing it myself. Right now, the big thing holding me back is the 9 month old twins. Figuring out how to be outsdie gardening and inside caring for them at the same time is interesting. I think I will have to bite the bullet and put them in their stroller until we can get a big superyard gate for them. Every day I go out and check the leaves on my trees that I planted. I'm glad that they got a good week in the ground of rain and warmth and sun before we got a bit of snow and frost. We are still getting frost advisories at night, but thankfully it doesn't go much below 40, if it gets that low.