After a long, cold, wet winter we are finally enjoying some beautiful warm Spring weather during the days and cool, crisp nights here in Kentucky. Nights without frost so you know what that means? It’s time to get the garden tilled and planted!
CountryBoy borrowed a friends tractor and tiller which made short work of getting the ground ready. (He also fixed our washed-out road while he had the tractor making good use of the bucket on the front.)
Once that was done he staked out the rows…
and we spent a couple of days planting seeds and several of the plants we started in the greenhouse.
Planted so far are corn, potatoes, okra, cucumbers, several types of tomatoes, lima beans, pinto beans, green beans, brussels sprouts, squash, onions, and sunflowers.
Still to plant are green peppers, cayenne peppers, sweet banana peppers, beets, more squash and brussels sprouts, and more tomatoes once they are big enough to transplant. We will direct sow watermelon in the next couple of days.
I am thankful for my greenhouse that we recently added on the side porch. It is accessible from the mudroom and does a great job of creating a hothouse effect. A few more small projects and it will be completely finished.
A few days after we finished planting we had a nourishing rain that gave the seeds and plants a good start. When the rain quit I meandered around the farm with my camera looking for spring flowers. Here’s what I found…
The passionflower vines are coming back and are climbing their way up the arbor leading onto our front porch.
The purple irises are beginning to open up…
such beauty…
After reveling in their beauty I meandered over to the sour cherry trees…
We may just get some sour cherries this year which we’ll make into jam (or maybe I’ll crush up a few and put into some Kombucha!).
From there I wandered over to the asparagus bed…
YIKES! Here is where I had a squirrel moment… I thought after the good rain we had that the weeds would pull up rather easy so I set my camera down and started pulling. These weeds were not going anywhere without a fight. Well no weed is going to get the better of me so I trotted off to the greenhouse to get some backup. My hand shovel could barely break through the thick weeds but I did find some asparagus…
YUM! This is our third year since it has been planted so we are free to harvest it this year. CountryBoy has picked several already and, boy, are they yummy sautéed in some butter, balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with some salt and pepper. Good stuff!
As I was pulling the weeds I came across some poison ivy. Oi! Since CountryBoy can almost just look at it and break out in a rash I started yanking and pulling on it trying to remove it from the root so that it wouldn’t come back. I got all of it except for a thick root which we’ll pour either some white vinegar or the salt water from homemade ice cream on it or both. (Good excuse to churn some ice cream!)
When I came in I scrubbed and showered and thought I was good-to-go but the following day I woke up in the middle of the night with a burning, itchy arm. I now have a rash on my face, both arms, chest and stomach. sigh. Apparently, I too, am now allergic to poison ivy. This too, shall pass. I’m just thankful for warm weather and for being able to help get the garden planted.
Have you got anything planted in a garden or containers?
Dream Valley Farmstead 