This week we emptied the chest freezer and defrosted it so that today we could start the winter preserving. First thing this morning we went out and got a half bushel basket full three times with lettuce. Washed it, blanched it and froze three quarts of lettuce. I use the lettuce or other greens for under a roast. With the green the roast stays nice and moist and the spices and juices from the roast flavor the greens so these that I freeze I use all winter and it makes any roast better and the greens are wonderful. 
This is a small part of the lettuce plot but it lets you see how big and nice it is. Of course I have left enough to have a salad every day and where the weather is going to get cool again starting tomorrow it will grow better and stay sweet. Then we picked a basket full of spinach, some from the kitchen garden that was starting to go to seed and some from the lower garden that needed thinning. We got another quart bag full of blanched spinach for the freezer. Here is the spinach in the kitchen garden. 
The lettuce gets into everything including the isles. Then just before dinner I took some pictures of my flowers to show you. 
Shirley, remember the root you brought to me? Well, I put it with the one I brought from Blairsville and planted them in the flower box in front of the studio. This is the first bloom this year and there are four others coming soon with a few small one that might make it. They are so pretty. I purple scented iris that is in the picture is one of many that are blooming all over the yard, in every garden. These spread and multiply well. Here is a picture of the big breaded iris that bloom later and are now just starting to open. They are so big and heavy they bend and get in the dirt when it rains so most of the time I have to cut them and put them in a vase, like this one.
Rather hard to see, but the hosta are getting beautiful and very easy to see.
These two on the right are the big Blue Hosta. The one in the foreground is green now but gets bluer as it reaches maturity. The one in the other picture is on the left here. The hosta bed is much nicer now that I took out and gave to Holly about 7 from this garden last year. She put them on the the hill behind their house and they look much nicer there as they are not so crowded, it makes mine look nicer too.
The Phoebes are back. I didn’t see them build a nest on the lower deck this year so was afraid they were not coming but today I saw both male and female on the garden fence hawking for bugs. They do such a good job of keeping the flying bug out of our back yard. We can sit out on the deck all summer and never get bitten by a mosiquito and never see a fly. They help with the japanese beetles also but they know better than to fly up and the Phoebe has to fly near the grapes to make them jump up, then the bird catches them. A pair of Phoebes in your yard is much better than any bug zapper. Have a great day.
Oumapetts's Blog 
My husband calls the Phoebe birds “Sweet Weather birds” like his parents did. When we hear them here, it usually means a change in the weather. Our garden has had nothing done to it yet for planting. It will be very late May or June before it is warm enough for anything to grow. The daffoldils are blooming though!
I remember the long winters when we lived in New Hampshire. We could not plant until Memorial Day but here we start with the cold weather vegetables in March and when the blackberry bloom we can plant all the rest and they started booming last weekend. I love the long growing season here. If we wanted to we could grow something all year round. It does get too hot here to grow lettuce and other cold weather vegetables in mid summer but we have time to get a crop done in the spring and then another one in the fall. This is the ideal climate to subsistence live. Have a good summer and have lots of sun and rain.