Spring, Glorious Spring

It's Spring! Glorious Spring!

If I haven't posted lately, it's because we've been out frolicking in the beautiful Spring sunshine.* Chico usually gets two weeks of heavenly weather in February, and this year, we're going on the third week. The bloom sequence is alread up to almonds: (quince, hyacinth/early narcissus, daffodils, almonds, fruit trees, etc.) The purple plums by Vallombrosa are in full bloom, as are the Bradford pears downtown. This picture was taken on the 18th when the first blossoms showed.

The daffodils are amazing right now. One is supposed to plant peas while the daffodils are blooming, so we put snow peas in row 1B. I also planted peas (shelling pea "Sabre" from Renee's seeds)  at my house between the fava rows. This picture actually shows us cleverly watering the bird feeder... we've changed out watering strategy to avoid this in the future.

The apricot branch on the plum is showing color.

And the favas started blooming this week, both at the farm and at my house.

I got going on the path project. I had already brought the flagstones over, and Buddy bought some sand, so now all I have to do is dig out the dirt. I used the hose and cord to lay out the shape.

And we used the good grass we dug out to resod a low, sparse area. You can't even tell, as this picture shows.

We also got busy and put mulch around the back of the bar. Again, it doesn't look like much, but it means we won't have a bermuda-grass wasteland back there.

We spread mulch around the side also, basically finishing out that area.

And in case that wasn't enough, we started clearing the area behind the house. That will be our tomato patch this year. Three years ago, when we put fully half the garden in Solanacea, we knew we'd have to break more ground. Tomatoes need a four-year rotation, and year one we used half the garden, and scraped by with a quarter garden for the next two years, but this year, we're out of space! So here are our captive dinosaurs, clearing the weeds and bugs out for us.

And, as long as we had mulch to work with, we remulched under the rug, and put a new rug down. Here you can see us doing what we do best... ah! That's farmin'!

As far as crops go, the oldest arugula and broccoli are past their prime.

But the new arugula and lettuces are doing really well. Rick C brought over some bok choi starts, and he plans to bring more starts over this weekend. His attic seed starting zone is working really well.

In my backyard, I planted a bunch of seeds yesterday: peas between the favas, then in the second row, from the front to back, red mustard, blondy chard, seasoning celery, and yellow chard. These were planted across the row, with watermelon radishes between each row.

The apple at my house hasn't bloomed yet, but it got a good pruning this winter, and is developing a good shape, even if it has a slight list.

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What We're Eating
I made these sandwiches with homemade rolls, polish sausage from the Meat Locker, swiss cheese, saurkraut, and sauteed kale with sundried tomatoes. Delicious!

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* And killing people... I'm back into an mmo that supports pvp so... must... kill... noobs...