Despite the rain from last night, the clouds today and the seriously-more-chilly weather today (yesterday mid 80’s, today mid 60’s), today is all about blossoms. Why? BECAUSE THE TOMATOES HAS THEM!! woooo!

Lots of blossoms. All over the place blossoms. And now I wonder – do I pinch them off til the plants are taller in the hopes of a larger crop later, or rejoice and watch my precious tomatoes grow?

Also, I have loads of Raspberry Blossoms. Yay jam! The peas are blooming as well as the Scarlet Runner Beans. I hope those keep blooming all season – especially once we get the arbour up.

My cold has all but cleared up and the weather is finally sunny and warm again, so it’s back into the garden to work work work! (and enjoy)

I’ve reseeded some things – failures from cucumber (too early, likely) and squash (too old), and morning glories (who knows?). I’ve planted flower seeds (before the rains – germinating now – and today). I finally got *all* my seedlings out (some runt tomatoes, leeks and celeriac). I hope they like their new homes. I’ve never grown either leeks (never eaten them until this year, either, delicious!) or celeriac but I’m excited about both.

We’ve finally been able to harvest some food from the garden – radishes, chives and mizuna in the pic, as well as lots of lettuce and spinach.

Speaking of the lettuce, I’ve firmly decided to plant it along the edges of all the beds next year (or at least the tall bed that’s closest to the living room windows) since it’ll be easier to harvest and it’s just so darned pretty!

I took a shot of the new broom plants in the front bed. They add a lovely splash of colour. I sewed some flower seeds there today – perennials, so I’m hoping they do well. We ripped out everything – including the crocus and failing iris – so this fall I’ll be putting in new bulbs, too).

The Raspberry/Hosta bed along the far side of the house is doing really well, despite a tiny bit of deer browsing (just the raspberries – didn’t touch the hostas!).

Here they are a month ago:

We’re pleased, and they’re loaded with what will be berries soon!

The standard garden pic (no arbour yet – we’ve been very busy – soon, though):

(lighting isn’t good – maybe I’ll take another later)
And from the back:

which has the most dramatic growth from 2 wks ago:

(check out how big the bleeding heart in the lower left corner got!)

I know I’ve been quiet. I’m sick with a wretched cold wherein I ran out of tissues right at the start, several days before grocery day, so I was blowing my nose (every 2 minutes or so) with TP and now my nose is all raw (despite liberal application of my balms) and I’m still sick and I *feel* sick. I just want to curl up under a blanket and sleep all day for a week.

Sadly, Mommy’s aren’t allowed to get sick, especially not the Stay-At-Home ones who’ve got laundry and dinners and children to manage (at the very least). I’ve also got some knitting that needs to be done post-haste and I haven’t enough time, I fear.

This weekend we got the broom planted, and I’d show you pictures but it’s rainy. And I’m concerned that my tomatoes have thrips (little bug that carries virii) and are all going to die. The positive side of not being able to grow tomatoes for a few years (if it ends up I need to do so) will be I can try growing all sorts of different hot peppers (since they’re doing fine).

Ken thinks I worry too much and they were just out too early and are being wimps. I hope he’s right.

This year was quiet and lovely. I made some cinnamon buns the night before, so breakfast was simple and yummy (though Ken would have preferred making me something, he later told me).

We bundled up the boys (cold, windy day!) and headed out to the home center where we were intending to pick up some apple trees. It’s tradition that Ken buy me plants/trees for M-day. The selection left a bit to be desired, so we browsed around and picked out some lovely Scotch Broom (orange and red flowers – quite lovely). I’ve found that it’s deer resistant, and though quite invasive in some areas (mostly wet/temperate), it seems to do well in our area. We’re going to plant them in the front bed and try to make it a little less of an eyesore.

I also started a new lace project that I think will be quite lovely once finished.

Before I left for a weekend away (baby shower), Ken took friday off work (beautiful weather, rain next weekend likely) and we got a few things done in the garden.

Got the support braces onto the tomato trellis (no strings yet but the tomatoes are small still).

Got the zucchini bed done and we’re both *very* pleased with it. It looks good. It’s small, so it’ll only have space for zucchini, but at least there’s space and it’s not on the ground and it’s contained. (before)

Since the zucchini bed is too small for other squash, we’ve got the overflow area:

Not the prettiest, but here’s hoping it’s enough for the crookneck, pumpkin, blue ‘Triamble’ and Saskatchewan watermelon we’ve got growing in them. When I grew the pumpkin last year their root systems were very shallow and surprisingly not widespread, so I’m hoping this works.

We’ve decided, for now, against the potato-tire-towers this year. We really ought to get quality potato to start with and, more importantly, should we need the garden to look extra good – well, tires just don’t look too purty.

So compared to last time, 10 days ago, we’ve got some substantial growth from everything…

April 24th

May 5th

Tomatoes are looking alright, chives (upfront and behind the cucumbers in the tall bed) are about to flower, beans are growing madly (up front with the wide leaves), peppermint is larger leaved than I’ve ever seen – I want to mow it down, Ken wants to see what colour the flowers will be). Harder to see is that the peas are doing well, radish are about ready to harvest a few, turnips are as big as the daikon (the leaves) but I’ve never grown them so don’t know what to expect. I had to reseed the slicing cuc’s because last year’s seed was just not cutting it (the new seedlings have already popped up!). The herbs and onions I planted aren’t doing much, so I’m doubtful, but will try to remain optimistic. I’m excited for when the morning glory pops up since I planted a red and a blue at the base of each of the trellis supports and my imagination paints them as climbing the trellis and making the garden *SO* pretty!