Jon saw this butterfly in the garden yesterday, and called me to come look.  I took this picture, and it looks exactly like the one in our Stokes Butterfly Book.  We read that they overwinter as adults in protected areas like woodpiles and leaves, and are some of the first to appear in Spring.

 

Love it!!!

 

HAPPY MARCH!!!

 

This isn’t a great picture, but you can see that the peach trees are blooming.  It is earlier than last year:  they started blooming about the 10th of March last year.  Then we got that snow and 12 degrees.  We still got a few peaches.
 
Not sure what the weather is doing this year.  But it seems a couple weeks ahead of last year.  The daffodils are gorgeous, the Bradford Pears are starting to bloom, and of course the peach trees, as you can see. 
 
I will be more diligent in my blogging in the next few days, so you can see what’s going on here.  
 
So exciting!!!!!
 
HAPPY ALMOST SPRING!!!

 

Look how pretty Patty’s Hellebores are.  They looked a little bedraggled over the winter, but they have perked up and are beautiful now.  Harbingers of Spring!!!

 

HAPPY MARCH!!!

 

Remember those Candy Roaster squashes we grew last summer?  Well, we made soup out of this one.  

 

It tasted very much like Butternut squash soup, but was WAY easier to peel.  Especially since I got Jon to peel it for me.  You can see how big this one was:  it weighed a little over 5 pounds. And look how well it kept in the basement, for 7 months!!!

 

I used the Butternut squash soup recipe (in the recipe section) and added a little curry paste.  We also toasted some sun dried tomato bread croutons to go on top.  Delicious!!!

 

I love my garden:  spring, summer, fall, and winter.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

It feels like spring here.  So we put away the poinsettias and the snowmen, and put up the spring flowers.  The ribbon is from the wreaths we made at Colonial Harbor, and it always makes me smile to remember.  

 

We made the grapevine wreath the first year we were here:  2004, so it has seen a few seasonal changes.  And it will see a few more, before I make a new one.  

 

HAPPY ALMOST SPRING!!!

 

What a sweet way to start the day:  with Roxanne’s gnome guarding her crocus.  He is a gem!!

 

Just wanted to make you smile.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

OK.  Most of our seeds are planted:  cauliflower, cabbage, spinach, chard, kales, pac choy, arugula, beets, cilantro, borage, salad burnet, and tomatoes.  SO exciting!!!

 

I ran out of heat mat space (we have three) so we will plant pepper and eggplant seeds next week when the cool season crops can move off the heat mats, and under the lights.  

 

I love this time of year:  imagining what’s to come.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

I mentioned planting by the moon yesterday.   Here is a link to The Farmers Almanac, so you can read more about the theory and practice.  It’s quite interesting, and makes perfect sense to me.

 

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

We are going to be busy for the next few days:  planting our vegetable seeds.  Tomorrow is the new moon, the best time to sow seeds.  We will be planting beet, cabbage, eggplant, leek, lettuce, kale, mustard, pepper, Swiss chard, spinach, and tomato seeds.  Cucumber and squash seeds will get planted next month.  They want really warm soil, so we leave them til later.  Just a note, Linda, I sow arugula directly into the ground, no transplanting involved.  Everything else gets a head start. 

 

I sow the seeds into flats, then put them in the basement on heat mats designed to maintain 70 degrees.  They will stay in the flats until the seedlings have two true leaves.  Then they get transplanted into their own little cell pack of soil.  That is when they move off the heat mats, and get placed under the grow lights.  

 

We do all our planting outside at the potting bench, so we pray for warmish weather.  Once the baby plants are planted they come back into the basement, where we can regulate light and temperature.

 

They will stay there until they are big enough to go out into the garden.  The tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers will stay in the basement until after the last frost date, which is May 15th here.  

 

Such an exciting time!!!

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Our daffodils are starting to bloom.  They are beautiful outside, like splashes of sunshine everywhere.  But I have to have some inside too.  They just make me happy.

 

I hope you are seeing daffodils in your travels, or better yet, I hope you have some in your own garden.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!