Irresistible

Our community in 1879 (then called Black's Station)

It was a wild week, weather-wise:  first, sunburn-hot weekend days followed by rain and a funnel cloud.  I like the reminder to appreciate the sunny days by having some good, old fashioned, unpredictable weather.

We took advantage of the warm temps to plant the garden - 2 months ahead of last year's garden design and build out. We feel very hopeful for another great harvest. 

I'm sad to say our citrus took a direct hit with the weeklong freeze and mistakes this novice gardener made about not covering them adequately. We lost one lemon and two mandarins, but the lime and blood red orange show signs of life, so I am trimming and fertilizing them, and then water, watch and wait.

It was exciting to spend time with the little apricot and nectarine trees in full bloom, they are so cute in their second year with honeybees all over the little 5' trees. I noticed some fuzzy buds already forming and know they will become excellent producers in a few more seasons.

Garden Babies planted for Spring

The biggest score of the weekend was discovering a great nursery near us. The plants were healthy and strong, no GMO, they had informational handouts on pertinent topics, good prices, and a broad selection. The place was packed.

Hovering nearby were experienced, friendly employees that knew plants, could answer questions, knew the layout of the nursery, directed traffic, loaded the car, cracked jokes with the Hubs and waved to us at the exit.

I have been searching for a boysenberry vine that is a prolific producer and also thorn-less.  Napa advertises them, but that is a 2 hr drive. We found a nice selection at Green Acres and came home with two. It will be fun to watch flourish and bear the kind of fruit I expect will become CityFolk Farmer's signature jam.

We brought home enough plants to double the garden from last year. We couldn't help it.

We are trying seven varieties of tomatoes this year, all heirloom or proven hybrid varieties. A couple we had never heard of but wanted to try. We planted Armenian cukes again, pickling cucumbers, pepperoncini and 2 extra zucchini plants.  We planted another hot pepper plant, this one with more bite, and red bells, and two tomatillo plants for our Mexican dishes and red pepper jelly.

We chose two varieties of green beans and are training them up an old metal trellis, and will experiment with seeding more beans in three week intervals so they continue to produce all summer. Two Japanese eggplants sit alongside the remains of the winter garden that won't give up: brussels and cauliflower.



Green wild grasses: first mow of the season

I'd still like to sow corn and plant a few more artichokes since they seem to like it here, and also lavender. Too much expansion will require a more extensive drip system, and we aren't prepared for that until next season.
We did decide to begin a new tradition around here, and plant a food producing plant in honor of our loved ones who passed away.

A Pistachio tree will honor of Pop B once we carve out a spot (two actually, a male and female). I'll put in a stand of rhubarb for Mom, and a Kumquat tree for Dad. 

Last weekend was our annual walkabout to clear the winter debris from the areas where the riding mower travels. The natural grasses are now tamed, well, for the week.  A junk hauler comes on Sunday to help lighten up what we inherited and added since settling in.

Gotta love spring.