Garden Friday

It's Garden Friday!
This lil' guy has been frequenting the suet feeders recently.
What a treat to watch all of the various aviary friends that stop by.
They have been devouring our homemade suet every chance they get.
We are happy to provide some extra nourishment for them during the wintertime.

Earlier in the week,
we showed you the winter scenery at Popple Springs Farm.
One of the treasures I brought home was this praying mantis cocoon.
Jannah found some of these fascinating abodes 
while doing some early spring chores in the garden.
Being the generous soul that she is,
she offered to let me bring one home.
I hope I get to watch the big reveal!

Two of the four arches have been erected on the NE side of the veggie garden.
The plan is to grow runner beans all across
and later on, maybe melons.
The fence posts were fairly easy to get into the ground,
which was a total surprise.
Thanks to a fellow gardener and friend,
I was able to borrow the t-post driver to make it happen.
Most likely cardboard will be added to the ground here
so that there will be no grass to maintain.
I'm so glad that this project is almost complete
(I need to buy two cattle panels for the other end).
The structure of the garden is changing in a good way.

Talk about excited!
The peas are up!  The peas are up!
It took a full two weeks,
but they starting popping up in the hugelkultur bed
and I couldn't be happier about it.
There is not much that makes my tummy more blissful
than eating these sweet-as-candy sugar snap peas.

loose leaf lettuce mix

Remarkably, the lettuce that was planted last fall
is starting to do something.
I've been sampling some of the varieties, expecting bitterness,
and have been pleasantly surprised.

Look at those carrots peeking out of the dirt.

This winter was kind of wet and wild.

It sure didn't go the way I expected it to,

but I guess there's a lesson in that.

Every year, every season is different.

The only thing you can do is to

throw more seed at it.

Next week I hope to share 

the garden plan,

which includes companion planting.

"Don't judge each day

by the harvest you reap,

but by the seeds that you plant."

~Robert Louis Stevenson