Getting ready to plant

We've been busy getting all ready for planting day on Monday.  Hoping for at least a bit of dry weather on that day and the day before.  The weatherman has been saying thunderstorms, but we are hoping they will miss us.   The dump truck had to be registered to the tune of $180... then there is some repair before it is inspected but we have till June 10 to do that.  We'll haul in 2-3 loads of manure because it is the best stuff to grow in... weeds galore, but we just feed those to the birds.  The chickens have been let loose in the garden this spring so not only have they had lots of green stuff to eat, we have gotten rid of quite a few of those pesky weeds and added a little fertilizer too. 

I planted the window boxes this week and a couple of potted plants for the end of the driveway.  The grass needs to be mowed and I probably can get to that tonight if it's not raining. 

Monday is planting day.  We have a map worked up and ready and the tiller is ready to roar.  I hope we will be able to post some pictures here on Tuesday. 

We are planting Romano Beans, Ruth Bible Beans and Jacob Cattle Beans, cucumbers
Lutz Winter Keeper Beets.  I bought 6 Roma Tomatoes and 6 Jet Star
We have Peas of a couple varieties, Zucchini, and as usual lots of winter squash from saved seeds, We bought corn seeds and I always plant sunflowers.   This year we dug up the last of the parsnips, so I purchased some more seed though that won't be harvested for another couple years.  If our growing season we just a little longer we could have a new crop each spring, but I let the last ones grow two years and they were just right.

Some of the herbs came back, but I started some others in the little greenhouse.

Here's some of my spring blooms in the garden this year.

pink barrenwort

lupines - no flower spikes yet

double daffodils - nearly all gone by today

not sure of the name, Mr. D bought these for me the first year here
I really like the little (cornflower) blue blossoms.

more little daffodils... light colored ones have multiple blossoms
on each stem

doesn't look very big, but was quite a job to get sod and rocks
out of this bed... day lilies and iris planted here... very wet!

That's what's happening at our place so far.  Lots more to do though, so more pictures later.

Rain, Rain, go away....

don't know what it says on this clip art, but liked this little rainy-day picture

I wanted to get down to the end of the driveway to take some pictures of the flower beds, but twice now I get 1/2 way down the driveway with my camera and it begins to pour.  The poor daffodils are all bowed down in the wet.  I did notice the bleeding hearts have come back from last year and they are blooming.  Also I noticed some slugs on different things... gotta get those egg shells down PRONTO.

I will get some pictures on here as soon as I can.  Mr. D was out weeding the veggie garden and I cut some rhubarb to sell along with our eggs.  We have two rows of rhubarb and it's usually the first crop to come up.  We got a little asparagus last night too.  Yum. 

I want to send you to one of my favorite blogs...  Across My Kitchen Table  my friend Mrs. T has some great comments about springtime there.  She is also a wonderful "cooker" and baker and likes to share her recipes.  We have enjoyed her cooking at church dinners and special occasions.  We have twice been to their home for Thanksgiving which have been wonderful times of fellowship, fun and of course delicious food.

We have known each other for quite some time, but have only become true friends in the past few years.  I have great respect for Mr. and Mrs. T and am glad to call them friends and of course we are family... in the Lord which makes it even more special.

Hope you enjoy her blog as much as I do!

Finally a little spring

We've had some beautiful spring weather the last few days.  Yesterday and today is wet and will probably be wet the rest of this week, but last week was so nice and warm with many sunny days.  It makes the wet days tolerable.  I noticed that the new little apple trees are beginning to leaf out finally.  I was afraid for them after such a hard winter, but they are coming along.

The day before Mother's Day, our local fire dept auxillary had its annual plant sale.  We bought some wet-loving plants to put in down at then end of the driveway.  It is always wet there, but the water seems to flow right through and in the dryer season will be dry, so we picked up some more day lilies...

These are "Kwanzaa Double Day lilies.  They will probably not bloom this year... or maybe they will.  The other day lilies that we had there already have bloomed very well for the past few years.  We also got some iris...

The Siberian Iris

larger Purple Iris...

and we also transplanted our German Bearded Iris which had multiplied well, but did not do well where we had it planted because of slug attacks.

These should look pretty all together there.  It will be nice if they all fill in that wet spot.  Mr. D also went back on that Monday and asked if they had any left-over plants.  He wanted to get me another Peony.  So the lady who helps run the plant sale went to her own garden and gave him a little Rose Peony...

Of course none of these pictures are my flowers... mine look more like orphan green stems and leaves right now, but we are hopeful that they will fill in and look nice next year. 

Mr. D was able to use the Blazer to pull out all the small trees that were growing on the road-side of the rock wall over to the neighbors driveway, so now our driveway entrance looks more manicured.  I'll take some pictures when the sun comes back out so you can see the progress.

I just love to get my hands into the dirt.  Thank the Lord we have summer... makes all the long winter tolerable.

Hope you are all having a good week.