Late Spring

Where does the time go?  It is already mid May, but it seems as if it was just yesterday that we had snow on the ground.  We have been working in the yard and garden almost every day and thoroughly enjoying it.  If you are thinking that we should have more of our projects completed, you must remember that we aren't as young as we once were and  require a few more rest periods. We cut asparagus for approximately six weeks and now we will stop cutting the spears and let them go to seed. They will become beautiful, tall ferns that will feed the roots to ensure a good crop next year. The above photo shows a few of our Spring onions that we have begun to pull.  Normally, by May we have carrots sown between the onion rows,  but as I said earlier, we are a bit behind schedule with some of the crops. Sowing carrots is still on the "to do" list.

Protecting our broccoli and cabbage plants from cabbage worms has been quite a challenge.  We want to avoid using commercial sprays that are harmful to humans. After many "brain storming" sessions, we decided to put a wire cage around the broccoli bed and cover it with nylon mesh. Those nasty little white butterflies won't be able to lay eggs on our plants.  At least we hope our cage works.  It looks a little "redneck" but if we have worm free vegetables, we don't care what it looks like.  The six, 4X4 ft. beds in the photo are the ones we moved and replaced with two new sixteen foot beds.  They were pictured in a previous post.  These square beds will soon be home to cauliflower, cabbage, and maybe kale. The cabbage and cauliflower beds will have wire cages around them as soon as we plant the seedlings.

On the very hot days, we work in the flower beds on the north end of our house.  Here is half of the bed where we transplanted Hosta plants from the front of the house.  

We have pronounced this bed  - finished. As soon as we add mulch, we won't have to bother with this bed for most of the season.  A number of years ago, we planted the Rhododendron to give some color to a shady spot.  The poor plant is still only about three feet tall and gets one bloom per year.  This spring, I said that I was thinking of digging it out and planting something else in that spot.  I was going to put the bush in a box and sit it at the end of the driveway as a freebie.  It must have heard me because this Spring two blooms appeared. Okay, the Rhododendron gets a reprieve for at least one more year.