Spring arrives just in time for summer

The garden is coming to life despite the persistent cold weather. Peas, fava beans, garlic, turnips, and cover crops have emerged and I'm still holding off on planting my warm season crops. The elderberries, irises, honeyberries, asparagus, catmint, and other perennials are returning, and the honeyberries especially look vibrant. They have flowered already. Ground nesting bee nests abound, probably more this year than in the past two because the garden wasn't tilled this year. Despite that, the weeds haven't been too bad. I think the weather has helped keep the weeds at bay more or less, so I have actually had time to pull them occasionally.

 I put in over 100 new perennial fruits in the backyard behind the garden, including grapes, Juneberries, American wild plum, Aronia/chokeberry, blueberries, a red fleshed apple, a peach, more sand cherries, elderberries, currants, and raspberries. I am looking forward to 2015, by which time all the perennials from this year will be "running." I've heard people say that in the first year a perennial "sits" and doesn't grow much, and the second year it "crawls"  (grows a little). The third year it "runs" (grows a lot). Right now they don't look like much--just a bunch of sticks in the ground. Some have leaves, but no flowers yet. I have potted up the extras for sale. Contact me if you are interested in purchasing some native superfruits. They are $6 each or 2 for $10. I also have purple lilacs, basswood, shrub roses, and hazelnuts. Tulips are available for $5 per dozen.

 The compost failed to change much over the winter, even though I put it in a sunnier spot than 2011's compost and covered it with a black tarp. I think the problem is too many "browns," or too much carbon, and not enough "greens," or nitrogen-rich materials. I will mow the lawn this weekend before I turn the compost and add the grass clippings to it before I apply the biodynamic preparations.

 I am growing some new things this year, like garbanzo beans, fava beans, lentils, cotton, and peanuts. The photo on the right is of a Kabouli black garbanzo bean. I purchased them from both Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and Irish Eyes Seeds. Perhaps I did something wrong, but so far it seems like the germination rate is a bit low for the Baker Creek Seeds. I have tried to fill in the bare spots in garbanzo beds with seeds from Irish Eyes, so we'll see if the germination is any better for those. I have direct seeded the lentils, but haven't seen them sprouting yet. The favas are coming up. The grasshoppers may be chewing on them a little. They seem to like sheep sorrel, which grows around the garden perimeter and creeps into it every chance it gets. So I am tolerating a dense patch of sheep sorrel in the garden to feed the damn grasshoppers so they don't eat the fava beans or anything else I plant. Depending on how pesky they get this year, I might try eating the grasshoppers this year. Someone suggested it at a work meeting recently.

 Here is one of the honeyberries I planted last year. There are 8 in the garden, and all of them have come back looking so much better than they did last year, and certainly bigger. They seem to have nearly finished flowering, and I'm looking forward to having my first taste of honeyberries once they ripen.
I tasted a few spears of asparagus. I ate them raw less than 5 feet from where they grow. Delicious! It's hard not to eat all of them, but I want the asparagus plants to grow big so I have to restrain myself. I have been checking every day to see how many spears are up and if any plants might be able to spare one or two spears for me. The ones I let go are growing tall. I can't wait for the asparagus to "run." I planted it last spring, and I think it was 2 year old crowns (maybe 1 year old crowns? I have only recently started to keep better records).
I mentioned above that I put a red fleshed apple in the back yard. I just heard about red fleshed apples a couple of months ago. I found them by looking through Southmeadow Fruit Gardens catalog. Southmeadow Fruit Gardens is a company in Michigan with an enormous collection of heritage and commercial varieties of apples. They sell other fruits too, as well as rootstocks. I wanted the apple called Hidden Rose, but they were out so I asked for the red fleshed apple with the reddest flesh they had left, and they sent Almata. It had red flower buds about to burst when it arrived, but unfortunately the uncouth four-legged neighbors ate them all. Now the tree is sprouting beautiful red leaves and the vegetarians in the neighborhood seem to have found other sources of food (though I'm pretty sure they are the ones chomping the strawberry leaves). My uncle in law dropped off some straw bales and fence posts and short rabbit fencing. I will be installing a fence soon to try to keep at least some of the critters out.  The straw bales will cover up the insulation in the front of the house, catch rain from the roof, and grow some cucurbits. So much work to do still! But it is a labor of love.
As for the heirloom bedding plant sale, let's wait until next Friday and Saturday, June 14 and 15. By then the starts will look better and the soil might even be warm enough for planting.
Friday & Saturday, June 14 &15 from 9 to 3. Email me at the contact link above for directions.