spring weekend

is there a way to resist the warm weather, the sunshine, the birds chirping, the smell of spring, the fact that it's a weekend, and stay on task, with all of the seemingly endless work there is to be done?

well, if there is a way, i do not know about it. and for now, i'm happy to remain ignorant of it.

so, the first springtime pictures of the garden... the first weekend that we really got out and began to prepare it for all of its wonderfulness-to-be...

what has this turned into you ask? what were those leaves for after all? and is our fence ever going to be a fence again???

to answer, this is our new potato field. it's a technique greg read about, where you let some leaves sit around all winter and then plunk down your potato spuds on top... as we did here...

then, it is topped off with about a foot of straw... as we did here...

the fence... i think there will be a new fence this year at the front of our plot.

the north end of our garden... we turned over the soil and put down straw. the squared off section is garlic and onions, as seen below.

the garlics, planted in the fall, are growing so tall!

we replanted these onions yesterday... they were left over from our harvest last summer and started sprouting without any help from us...

we also planted lettuce yesterday and are willing the weather not to frost.

sunday:

i went out into the garden... i didn't know what to do... there really aren't many weeds to pull yet... no more new plants to plant yet... so i uncovered the beatrices a bit, walked around, made discoveries...

under the first beatrice... sproutlings! what of? we will have to find out because i have no clue...

beans! pole beans i think. from last year... we will plant them and see what happens...

at first i assumed this little green guy was just some winter rye that we planted in the fall, that hadn't been turned over yesterday... but then i looked closer and realized it must be a garlic that survived from last year because it is in the spot where we planted our somewhat ill-fated garlic last spring...

in the...
i discovered this...

a little cabbage???

in the Hmong garden, the new rises from the old...

an onion, growing in the mud, trying to get its roots into the ground...

i decided to rescue him... i wonder if i made the right choice... he may not survive the transplant, but he's destined to be tilled over before the garden officially opens... now he can hang around with other onions and sort of learn from them, get motivated to keep growing, get some attention... all that stuff.

at the farm... the bee boxes are stacked, awaiting bees...

a garbage pile...

beans...

straw...

the prairie... looking ever so prairie-like...

and finally... the monstresses...