Growth

David has counted 64 oak tree saplings now.  More keep popping up every day.  This project has given me hope that I might be able to start seeds again maybe someday.  Well, someone in our house might be able to start seeds.  I’ll have to put one of the kids in charge.  Maybe next year.  I tried so many times when they were toddlers.  Either the little hands destroyed them, or I would forget with my cluttered mind, or they failed just because.  I’m getting to the stage of parenting where I have a pool of remotely responsible people who say, “Mommy, can I do this?”  It’s wonderful.

The roses are still covered outside, but the tulips are really coming up now.  The lilies are starting to come up for air, and the strawberries leaves are unfolding.  Apparently some of my spinach went to seed last year because I have a patch coming up.  Oops/cool.

Well, now I know that I can at least plant the salad seeds in the garden.  I’ll probably get the first batch of lettuce in the ground today, and apparently the next batch of spinach.  I can’t believe this spinach is coming up even before the asparagus has started poking through!  Asparagus has always been my first vegetable to show up.  Spinach is not supposed to come back every year like this, and is certainly not good incentive for me to not let them “go to seed” again.  Sometimes getting way behind in gardening does pay off I guess!

The chicks are getting some feathers now.  It will still be awhile before they can join the girls in the coop.  We’ve already found a couple of ticks on the other animals though, (the grass isn’t even green yet!!) and so I’m eager to get these lovely little tick eaters in the yard, because apparently the 9 grown hens aren’t cutting finding them all.

I spent a few hours yesterday with the kids just bringing the winter “trash” out of the garden.  I pruned the raspberries for the first time, and I took away so much.  3 wheelbarrows full actually.  In the few short years we’ve had raspberry bushes, they’ve spread, and so this year before they started budding, I wanted to prune them back into  their space, and remove all questionable parts.  Not much was left besides a thin, orderly row of stalks, but I’m not worried.  I’ve seen what these plants are capable of!

I got all rosy cheeked and had to take off my winter hat, and it just felt so good.  I love gardening this time of year.  Ask me again in August and you’ll hear a different story, but now?  It’s just what we need.