Yes, we had an amazing weekend, and I was finally able to do some planting. But first: you may recall that my strawberry bed was flooded with salt water during an unprecedented high tide this fall. So, with a GREAT deal of help from my husband, the bed is under renovation.
He removed all the old strawberry plants for me. They have been set aside on a tarp, and this coming weekend I will sort though and separate out any that may survive. I hope to move them to the front yard, maybe as a border on one of my ornamental beds. I then got on my knees in the wet soil and dug out every last bit of pennywort (nasty weed) that I could find around and under the bed timbers. The bed was then raised by two more stories of 6 x 6 lumber, and filled with new compost and sand. This now will be vegetable bed number 3, and I am thrilled to have the new space. The renovations also will include bringing in at least a couple dump loads of sand to use as a raised foundation all around the 4 beds. The dream is to make a supporting wall and a permeable patio surrounding the garden. I want a place where I can walk even if it has rained, and a barrier to the common bermuda grass and pennywort. Stay tuned!
In the garden this weekend I harvested baby leeks (see them sliced and sauteed in the pan), broccoli side shoots (that is the end of those), and spinach. These went into a wonderful, vegetable filled rice dish for lunch. Here you see the spinach, planted last fall, that is now taking off, as well as four flat leaf parsley plants that are beginning their second (and final) year.
But most exciting: I planted seeds! Now in the ground: sugar snap peas, beets, turnips, carrots, and lettuces. Just in time for yesterday's rain. With luck there will be some tiny green shoots in my world in about 2 weeks (or less if we get some warm days). Yes, spring has begun.
