My computer has been acting up lately, making anything more than using twitter, @JessicaPbees, a bit of a pain. Back in working order, I have got some catching up to do.

 The weather has been fantastic, even the rainy days, for gardening and I have really been quite busy. Today and tomorrow I am focusing on giving the garden a really good weeding as these damp days with damp soil are truly best for pulling weeds successfully. We have been eating lots of kale, arugula, cilantro, spinach, scallions, radishes, pak choi, swiss

chard, fiddleheads, corn salad or mache, asparagus, rhubarb, chives, lemongrass,
lettuces and we were eating dandelion greens but they're too large and bitter
now. 

We have kohlrabi, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, more kale, carrots, potatoes, peas, more spinach, more lettuces, swiss chard, beets, parsnips, ruatabagas and onions all germinated in the garden, although they're not much to look at right now so I didn't take too many pictures. We also transplanted the onions we started indoors from seed into the garden and are starting to harden off some plants and herbs to go live in the cold frame until they're ready to be planted when the soil warms even more. 

 Here's a quick pictorial update to show some of the gardening I have been up to. The lighting wasn't the world's best today for plant pictures, although they turned out all right. 

Hardening off my petunias. These don't look like much now, especially when compared to what the nurseries have to offer, however these will last long into the fall, until frost completely kills them before they even start looking too tired. 

Lots of lemon balm. I am always snacking on or just grabbing leaves of this to smell while gardening. 

Viola. 

My white bleeding heart has been blooming for awhile now. So unique. 

One of my many hostas. 

One of my smaller alliums not quite in full bloom yet. My largest allium, Globemaster, decided to poke up extra early this year and was killed by frost. Not sure what will happen to it next year, it may need to be replaced. 

Woodland hyacinth. 

Our new shady bed for our alpine strawberries started from seed. 

My first ever rhododendron, bought just down the road from where I live. It's love and I'm, of course, already wishing I had bought two.  

63 new strawberry plants added to the excisting strawberry bed. Mind not that my foundation is only partially painted, it's on the to-do list. 

Green strawberries, forming before ripening. 

A patch of thickly sown baby leaf mesclun mix. One of my favourite, most versatile lettuces. Makes great salads and garnish, we use it everywhere. 

New radishes inter-planted with leaf lettuce. It is thought in companion planting that inter-planting radishes with lettuce improves the lettuces flavour. 

New kale in the cold frame. Planted in very early spring. 

New scallions planted in front of the old scallions in the cold frame. 

Corn salad in the cold frame planted beside some parsley you can see in the bottom right corner. 

Pea trellis number one. 

The second pea trellis. 

Freshly trimmed and transplanted onions seedlings you can hardly see. 

My first ever azalea. I think these lovely yellowish blooms should open shortly. Also love at first sight and already wishing I had bought another. I may try and propagate this and the rhodo, as I know a lot of people have success with this.   

New black currant bush. I'll never forgive myself for leaving a black currant on a rental property down the road from where I live now that my grandmother had given me. I have even thought about going back to see if it's still alive on several occasions. 

Our new rhubarb patch. This was thriving until something, I'm assuming it may have been a bear, dug up one entire rhubarb plant and ate it, roots and all. It then proceeded to tear and rip apart the leaves of the other rhubarb plants it had left alone until I'm assuming my dog scared it away or it had it's fill. 

Tore up leaves. It even bit into this stalk in several places rendering it unusable. 

To end on a sunny note, this red bleeding heart brightens up shady corners like this one by my chicken shed.  

Cold Frame Salad.

We have been eating lots of these lately. Scallions, mixed greens: arugula, baby spinach, baby mesclun mix and leaf lettuce with radishes.

Happy May Long Planting Weekend!

We planted a new rhododendron, an azalea and a new rhubarb patch. Pictures to follow as it is a beautiful day out and I will be outdoors for the remainder of the afternoon. 

Still getting lots of fiddleheads. These are freshly picked, steamed and blanched. 

Cold frame lettuce. 

The garden, fully planted and freshly watered. Just needs mulch. The boards are a neat trick for germinating carrots. Helps keeps the moisture in the soil for when the carrots finally germinated, about 7-14 days. The row covers are for rutabagas which, in my garden anyway, quickly get eaten to pieces. 

Done...Temporarily.

The garden is officially planted until it is time to plant the warm weather crops. Beans, tomatoes, ground cherries, peppers, celery, cucumber, squashes, melons, corn, sunflowers and basil will wait until after any risk of frost is over and even then I do not hurry to get my tomatoes, ground cherries and peppers in. I usually transplant them about two weeks after the last frost allowing the soil even more time to heat up.  I have only done this the last two years and would say it is worth the wait. Weather can be unpredictable here and it seems we often get a cool spell after the risk of frost has passed. 

We currently have planted in the garden: Beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cilantro, fall planted garlic, kale, kohlrabi, various lettuces and greens, onions from seed, parsnips, peas, potatoes, radishes,  rutabaga, scallions, spinach and swiss chard. I may be forgetting something, although I think that is covering everything. We still have a fully stocked cold frame with kale, scallions, spinach, radishes, pok choi, mache, arugula, lettuces, parsley and cilantro. Now to sit back, water, fertilize, weed and watch it grow. 

Peas in the first planted pea bed, these guys need a trellis to climb. I'm working on it. 

The second pea bed with the trellis. 

Ruby red radishes. 

Hard to get the camera to focus on, asparagus spears. 

Newly planted rhubarb chicken and cat proofed. 

Garlic going for it. 

Tulips, hollyhocks, iris and grape muscari. 

Some checkered lilies still hanging on. 

I love these double daffodils. 

Fragrant jonquil daffodils.  

Hosta surrounded by grape muscari. 

These are so fragrant, the smell fills the house when I take them inside. 

Fox's grape. 

Daffodils and hycainths. 

Tulips. 

So Much Planting.

I sincerely apologize for being somewhat absent with my blogging presence here. We have been awfully busy planting, thinning, transplanting, fertilizing, making new beds and constructing a new trellis. As of tomorrow the entire garden will be planted with the exception of the warm weather crops, of course. Once I get started, it seems like there is just not enough hours in the day and I am usually out after dark with my outdoor lights blaring, watering things.  My poor flower beds have not even been thoroughly weeded, thankfully I edged around them and gave them a good weeding as soon as the soil had thawed. I need to get on top of the weeding of the flower beds before it becomes an enormous task, however around here the veggies always come first. Tomorrow I do not have too much on my plate and will try my darnedest to get some updated pictures on here. The bulbs are truly lovely this time of year, they are so rewarding to plant. We recently added 63 new strawberry plants for a total of 108 and the asparagus spears are reaching for the sky. 

The doggy has been sleeping on this pile of topsoil since we got it. I will feel bad for him when it all gets used elsewhere. 

Lovely kale and spinach from the cold frame. Amazing the kale is still holding on from last fall. I thinned everything in the cold frame that I had sown way too thickly when I was not sure how well it would germinate in the cooler spring temperatures. Now I know that it was not necessary. The chickens do not mind though and make short work of the thinnings, arugula being their favourite.  

It was a lousy day, light-wise for taking photos. I could not resist snapping a shot of my favourite garden corner. Lots of bulbs in bloom and some following shortly after. 

New Perennial additions to the Garden This Year.

Perennials are the best. With a little care and TLC you can have perennial fruits and vegetables come back year after year. They are especially great in the early spring when rhubarb, asparagus and strawberries are ready to harvest before your early planted peas. Some new additions to our garden this year include:

One new rhubarb plant to add to our existing plant. 

One new highbush blueberry to add to our other two plants. 

Fifty, yes fifty, new strawberry plants to add to our existing forty five plants. 

Thirty some odd alpine strawberry plants for a new alpine strawberry bed. 

Twenty some odd all male asparagus plants grown from seed to add to our six existing crowns we can fully harvest this year and twelve asparagus plants grown from seed last year. 

and

One black currant bush. 

Some of last years strawberries. It's common to pick this amount in a day. 

Bog cranberry bush. 

More strawberries. 

Asparagus spear.