it begins again

The snow left several weeks ago during a rainy spell. Current weather has been balmy (10+) with the bulbs making a break for it. Most of them have a good 4 to 6 inches of green above the soil line. Last fall we piled the leaves into the back end of the garden where very little grows due to shade from the Tree of Heaven. I was surprised to find several gung-ho daffodils trying to make it up through this mound (and succeeding!).

I got 15 whole minutes to prep the backyard this week. E's not too keen yet on hanging around in the cool spring outdoors to allow for much pruning, raking, potting, etc but that's of little surprise for a 3-month old. She's slowly learning to enjoy wind.

Raised beds are being toyed with due to the high clay near the house. Last year Tal, Peter, and Ryan sifted the area and removed what became a 6ft+ mound of stones as well as worked in several bags of sand and compost. It really paid off but the back corner remains a terrible place to subject plants to. The seed gulag.

Roots vegetables faired poorly - carrots and beets, while tasty, were small and took the entire season to produce. Tomatoes - 3 plants, forget the varietals - tried to take over the place. Greens, especially spinach, also did amazingly well. Edamame succeeded. Peas didn't. Squash in the year previous produced 2 small fruits. Corn was accidentally weeded out by a keen brother so remains an unknown.

I bought seeds this week from Urban Harvest...

• Greens: Ruby Red Swiss Chard, Green Salad Bowl Lettuce, Red Russian Kale
• Tomato: Black Brandywine, Matt's Wild Cherry
• Herbs: Garlic chives
• Broccoli Di Ciccio
  

Others yet to purchase: mint, basil, thyme, coriander, dill, spinach.