Rebirth and renewal. Rejoice!
Fall and winter were sad and depressing for me; I spent months in an amotivational hibernation. The cool, wet March kept me from my garden but now temps are rising to 70 degrees and the garden beckons. I just spent 5 days out there and the greening landscape and the garden work have brought an optimism that I've lacked since October. I find myself repeating a simple prayer: "Thank you God!"
Among the returning garden plants were Garlic chives (aka Chinese chives). I planted the seed last Spring and now I have a perennial patch.
Work in the Garden:
I put up a 41 foot, 8 foot high fence/trellis shaped like an I, two 8 foot cross pieces and a 25 foot center. Driving metal stakes into rocky, clay soil with a hammer is hard work! Ah, but so rewarding to look at when it's done.
I used my long handle loppers to clear and expand my garden. Lots of thorny blackberries to clear. One wild blackberry got to live and maybe become part of my garden pending fruiting. It had round stems and few, small thorns like a dewberry, perhaps it's a cross.
Planted outside the garden enclosed by the electric fence: potatoes and garlic, seeds of asst. flowers, Litchi tomato, Garlic chives, and Bunch onions.
Planted inside the garden: two Matt's Wild Cherry tomato plants and 12 marigolds from Lowes and seed of 3 carrot varieties, 3 Snow pea varieties, and Sugar Snap peas.
The 4 varieties of ever bearing strawberries made it through the winter and have resumed growing. One Ozark Beauty strawberry has a flower on it.
The Blood sorrel died back in the winter but has returned and is growing well. Pretty, nutritious, easy to grow perennial; I'll be planting a big patch this Spring.
Oregano, Creeping thyme, and Lemon Balm, Rosemary, Echinacea, Kiwi Gold raspberries, Bunch onions, Jim and Jan primocane blackberries and Goji berries all green and looking good.
Wild violets and Juneberries in flower.
Goldenberry (Physalis peruviana) cuttings I took last November have gone wild. I'm going to trim them and root the cuttings at the same time as I root some weeping willow cuttings. Both Willow and Goldenberry will have 10 inch stems in the water. Some chopped up willow stems are also in the water.
The Goldenberry trimmings and Willow in the jug.
The jug in the warm spot, water temps = 75 to 80 degrees. Misted several times a day. East facing window light supplemented with 2 23 watt compact florescent lights on 16 hours/day.
Much smaller Goldenberry plants!
