An Agreement

I went out yesterday afternoon to check the carrots, and there was a large rabbit sitting about 15 feet away from me, eating dandelions.  He was completely unconcerned with my presence, even when I took a few steps in his direction and said "Eat all the dandelions you want, but leave the garden alone."  He just looked at me and went on chewing.  I stood there for a few minutes more; then had to go in and start dinner.  He kept eating dandelions.

I can see the garden from my kitchen window, but didn't see him again, and the spinach seemed to be all there this morning.  I'd like to think we have an agreement, this rabbit and I.

All the same, the bits of unassembled fence scattered around the yard will have to take some shape soon.  I hope that agreement holds until Saturday!

The State of the Garden

Luckily, I've been better about gardening than I've been about blogging! Even this picture is a week old, but here are 2 of my 4 raised beds (pink plastic croquet stakes are my daughter's idea...). There are peas, beans and carrots in the far bed, and spinach, broccoli, a few lettuce plants (that I don't think will make it), and a few onions in the near bed.

Today, I put out the peppers, clearing up yet another patch of my kitchen counter -- yeah! The beans and peas are coming up nicely, and there are a few teeny, tiny carrot leaves showing. I hope the peppers aren't too early, but I was worried about putting the broccoli out last week, and it seems to be just fine.

Knots

The alarm on my phone is about to go off to wake me up... Only i'm not sleeping. I usually sleep on the train but today i'm too stressed out. Stupid work stuff has got me in knots. Why am I so unable to get successfully from one day to the next? Surely my schedule can't be that much tighter than everybody else's..? Even other working moms. Why do other people have hobbies and friends and vacations, while I can't even find 5 minutes to plant the peas... Much less blog about it?? (Ha. I knew I'd find a way to relate all this to my garden.)

The train is stopped now, waiting while the inbound train goes by. There goes the alarm. How I hate the T for wasting my time with such impunity. I need every minute.

Berry Blues

The seed company said the berry bushes would ship in April... but 4 blueberry bushes, 4 raspberry bushes and 4 blackberry bushes arrived on my doorstep last week, covered in bright green stickers that screamed "PLANT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!"

So... thinking that being stuck in my garage or basement for a month would be worse than being planted a month too early, into the ground they went yesterday afternoon.  The ground wasn't frozen, and the sun was warm(ish), so I was pretty optimistic.  As we finished up though, the sky started to get that dark "winter isn't over" look; I figured it might rain, which couldn't hurt, right?  

The moment we put down the shovel, my husband got hit with a big, fat snowflake.  5 minutes later, the entire yard was covered in white, and my husband was running around the yard like Superman with plastic dropcloths for a cape trying to get the new bushes covered!  (I wish I had a picture!)

Today it's cold.  Only about 32 degrees.  Hopefully the dropcloths haven't blown away and are providing the berry bushes with enough warmth to keep from freezing.

Stinky old New England winter strikes again.  Hmph.

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Update: 5/4/2009

Berry bushes are all alive and well and growning nicely!  :-)

The Sprout Report

The broccoli, lettuce and spinach have all made appearances!  (This is one of the broccoli plants.)  Still waiting for the peppers, but I have a feeling my kitchen isn't warm enough during the day for them.  I need a lamp.

Now if we could just get a few warm days in a row... The sun is great, but it's been in the 30's all week.

I still don't know what the sprouts in the front yard are...  No sign of flowers, so my guess is daffodils.

Getting there

Broccoli, green peppers, lettuce and spinach are all started and taking up most of my counter space :-)  My daughter has two little pots of her own with strawberries and chives... which should be just fine, if I can manage to keep her fingers out of them!!  We've also decided where to put our blueberries and are thinking about planting some concord grapes too -- woo hoooo!  (Have I mentioned how glad I am to have a YARD?!?!?!?)

The weather was beautiful this weekend -- feels so good to go outside and not brace against the cold!  (Yes, it's snowing again this morning, but it shouldn't last long and it's a pretty snow... big cotton-ball flakes hanging in the air.)

Next week... the tomatoes...

Waiting

The onions are coming along nicely... I think.  One or two seem to be getting too tall for their little starter pellet thingies.  I suppose moving them to little pots is next.  Next weekend I'll start the lettuce and broccoli.

There are quite a few little sprouts in the front yard.  Still not sure if they're crocuses (croci??) or daffodils.  Still about 80% snow cover in the back yard; I'm getting very impatient.