Monday, April 30, 2007

So many wonderful things to look at!

The lilacs are starting to bloom


The radishes are up


The lettuce is looking great


I planted onions and potatoes on Saturday. These onion plants may not look like much right now, but give them a week - they bounce back from shipping very quickly.


Apple Blossoms


And Peach Blossoms!



Wednesday, April 25, 2007

The garden this morning

The lettuce is surviving the transplant and looking good.


The apple tree is going to be covered with blossums soon! I'm so excited about this since we only got 4 apples last year.


The Black Raspberries I moved a few weeks ago seem to be doing fine and not showing any signs of transplant shock.


The Plum Tree Dan planted for me last August seems to have survived the unusual weather and is coming to life.


And the plants in the basement are thriving and will be ready to plant outside as soon as the weather warms up. Everything is up now except the green cabbage and chives which did not sprout at all. I may or may not replant them. I haven't decided yet.

Monday, April 23, 2007

It was a good gardening weekend

I transplanted some of my lettuce plants, sowed some lettuce seeds directly into the garden for later lettuce, and planted radishes.


The rhubarb is up - I can't wait for the first taste of spring in a rhubarb crisp or pie!

Monday, April 16, 2007

Time to use up last year's canned/frozen goods

While we are waiting for this year's garden to start producing it is a good time to clean out the pantry and freezer. I did that some this weekend by making some tomato soup from tomatoes canned from last years garden.

I heated a little bit of olive oil in a sauce pan and added one large onion and 4 cloves of garlic and cooked until soft. I added 3 pint jars of tomato sauce and 1 pint of frozen veggie stock (could use water or chicken broth) and just a little pepper (I didn't add any salt since I add salt when canning). It tasted just a little bitter to me so I squeezed in a little honey. I used my hand blender to blend it all up and lunch was ready! It was so yummy!

Friday, April 13, 2007

Signs of Spring

In spite of the crazy weather and snow just a few days ago, I am able to find signs of spring in my garden.

Daylillies

Rhubarb


Garlic


Lilac buds

The weather is supposed to be great this weekend - maybe in the 60s on Sunday! This will be a great weekend to get things done outside.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

I want spring!

The metro area is under a "winter storm warning" - shouldn't that be a spring storm warning? I guess since it includes snow, it has to be a winter warning. I really want spring to come. Luckily I have a little bit of spring down in my basement to console me until the weather decides to cooperate.




Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Winter's not done in Minnesota yet!

This was the scene outside my back door this morning. We got lucky here in the Twin Cities metro - just to the north of us they got buried - this isn't even enough to shovel - but still after it being in the 80s just last week......


Meanwhile down in the basement, all of the plants are doing well, just waiting for the outside weather to cooperate. Almost everything is up. I replanted the green cabbages and several of the cauliflower. The Chives still show no sign of life. The peppers are even starting to come up - they are usually the last to germinate.