A Hard Day's Work

More species tulips are blooming in the garden now that we're back to spring. If you've never grown species tulips, you really should give them a try. They are much more satisfying than the big hybrids.

Species tulips will multiply and naturalize on their own, and come back beautifully year after year. They are little trouble and always give a good show.

One really nice thing about them is that they really catch the eye of people passing by. Like this little pink tulip, which always gets comments from visitors who are used to seeing the same old hybrids again and again.

So far I have five different varieties, one of which has yet to bloom this spring.

But the tulips aren't the only ones up. The peas and favas all sprouted this week. Carrots, radishes and various greens are all on their way too.

Early this afternoon, Abbey helped me plant bush beans and chard. I planted the mustard, as the seeds are far too small for little hands. I also planted some early basil in the cold frame, more cilantro, and some arugula seed that a woman shared that came directly from her father's garden in Italy.

After getting some of the beds at home dressed up, we all went out to Perkins to work on getting some more of the fence put up. During last weekend's work party, we sank more than a dozen posts and got a lot of things ready, but we still have to fence in the early spring beds.

It was a beautiful day for working in the garden... and also a good day for goofing of in a wheelbarrow. But Abbey didn't just goof off, she also explored the main garden with her mom and found some herbs struggling to grow in an abandoned plot from last year. They found some thyme, sage, parsley and one other unknown herb that I'll have to identify after it grows a bit.

After getting some of the fencing done, I double dug a section of the garden and put in two 4'x4' raised bed frames that were also abandoned last year. I filled the frames with a mix of vermiculite, compost and garden soil, then planted them with Allstar lettuce mix, Nancy buttercrunch lettuce, Space spinach, Bright Lights chard and broccoli raab.

We got done a little late, but here's a picture of Julie and Abbey surveying a hard day's work and hoping for a little rain.