Take A Walk

Our garden is waking (and perking) up for the year! Though it's now grey and beginning to drizzle outside right now, yesterday was just prime for the green thumbs out there. Now, my thumbs may be a bit more pink than green when it comes to starting the garden's seedlings (or maintaining the houseplants), but I do an apt job of general plot maintenance (politically correct "weeding") and Andrew and I are almost always the ones harvesting!

Harvest time is so far away to us, though - with the exception of the plants that are coming out of dormancy we have nothing in our soil beds! However, our dining room's only window is crowded half to death with trays and trays of baby seedlings. You may recall a similar state last year when we had explosions of seedlings, mature plants, and harvested results! Our seedling tally is actually fairly small so far this year, though there are a few plants going into the garden that will be purchased this week! So far, we've got a myriad of peppers (hot, sweet and even blue!), giant pumpkins, zucchini, 3 types of tomatoes (including these rainbow heirlooms, left) and some assorted ornamentals going inside, and most are prime for transplanting this weekend. For straight seed-to-earth planting, I've also got some purple carrots and Chioggia beets (can we say hello, salad?). I'm just keeping my fingers are crossed that we don't get smacked upside the head with frost and hailstorms this year!

When I went out "exploring" our reawakening backyard yesterday, I found out just how hardy some of our perennials really are! The funny thing, though I shouldn't be surprised, is that our strongest plants out back aren't even ones we really planted! Lining the back fence that separates our property from the forest and conservation area is a virtual field of wild raspberry plants, that even with all our local wildlife will give us some sweet nibbles this summer, and the 1/4 of rhubarb bulb that Andrew and his family gave me two years ago is now so strong and big - I can only hope strawberries are plentiful in the fields this year so I can get some pies made!

Apparently the rhubarb plant is hitting puberty too - it's generated it's own seed pod on it's centre stalk that reminds me of the plant in Little Shop of Horrors:
These are the pumpkin babies on the right... I know that when they're fully grown they won't be "pie-friendly", but I may be able to steal the seeds out of them and at the very least we'll have our very own "Pumpkin Kings" for Hallowe'en!

And here's the aforementioned giant rhubarb... strong (but not too thick) stalks that are such a beautiful balance between ruby red and green!