First Day of Spring

written by Yvonne

The seeds Tom planted several weeks ago have begun to sprout. So far what's sprouted is broccoli and/or cauliflower (yes, we're trying them both yet again).

The winter winds really made a mess of the hoop houses this year. When we put them up next fall we'll have some repairs to do for sure.

Olive always hates to see the hoop houses taken down because it means no more cats hiding underneath.

Honey did her part to help by eating as much grass as possible.

We have a great cookbook called "Greens, Glorious Greens" and it's all about how to cook all kinds of greens (imagine that).  There's one whole chapter on dandelion greens - yes, those dandelion green. The weeds that grow in your yard (pictured below.)

Bed #2 was chock full of dandelion greens. Tom has been dying to try them out in a dish but I was skeptical. I agreed to give them a try if he agreed to only harvest ones from the garden beds and not any from the yard where any number of dogs may have peed on them.  Ewww!

This is a before of bed #3 - chock full of weeds and possibly spinach.

Sure enough there was some good spinach in there!

On the other half of bed #3, I planted six varieties of lettuce. Hopefully they'll come up before it gets too hot.

Bed #2 wasn't as full of weeds because I'd already weeded half the bed not long ago.

After Tom pulled out all the dandelion greens, he uncovered some great collards, a little bit of kale, and some beets.

At the other end of bed #2 I planted cow peas, snap peas, and snow peas. That might be a bit too much for this small of an area, but we'll see.

 

Now THIS looks much better. The hoop houses are down for the season, three out of four beds have been weeded and planted, and the tall grass around the beds cut back.

The dogs were SO happy to enjoy the day outside, as were we.