It has been too many days since I last talked with you so now I will show you how everything is growing except the blueberries.  AH–the poor blueberries.  90% of the promise froze in that ice storm the first week in March.  They look now just as they did when we got home which means they died and will never open.  There are a few blueberries that have come from the secondary buds.  These are the ones that would have grown at the end of the season so we will have a few but not enough to freeze for the winter.  If any of the famers were alert enough to cover their bushes before that storm we will be able to buy a couple gallons to freeze otherwise we will have to settle for dried ones from Amazon.

The flowers are looking beautiful.  

The iris are in their glory right now.  Each morning I walk around and dead head the ones that died so the next bud on the stock can have room and strength to bloom.  Later the bearded iris will bloom but they come about 3 weeks behind these scented iris.  The hellebore are still blooming nicely as are the bleeding heart. 

These did not do as well as they did last year, I guess the hard winter took its tole on them. The May flower bush is in full bloom and smells heavenly. 

And if you look very carefully you can see the lilly of the valley. The black eyed Susans and the Chinese lanterns are growing up so fast they hide them.

The hosta are growing well every where.  Those in the Hickory grove are getting larger and the deer are now leaving them alone, I covered with netting some of them.

These are the ones in the hosta bed.  In this same bed is some iris and lilies as well as a few other odd plants.  Here are the lilies, they are just budding now. 

This is the flower box in front of the studio, Shirley – your peonies are really going to be beautiful this year.  The ants are working the buds and with  whole week of no rain and lots of sun and heat they should bloom this next week or so.  This year if it rains I will pick them and put them in a vase.  They are so big they can not take a rain without tipping right down to the ground.

This is two different shots of the glad bed.  As you can see I haven’t gotten to clean it up yet but the glads are coming up anyways and will bloom when they want to even if I don’t get to clean up their bed or not.  And the most important blossom is the blackberries.

The blackberries tell you when to plant the tomatoes.  Most years once the blackberries bloom they are no more frosts.  When there is a frost after the blackberry booms it is called a blackberry winter and usually means you lose many plants you were planning on.

The vegetables are all growing well.  

You don’t get to see the whole garden but you can see that everything is up and doing well. Each day I thin the lettuce for a salad and today I thinned one part of the spinach row and Norman had a big serving of steamed spinach.  I don’t really like the greens so I only eat them when we get so many it is either eat them or freeze them.   

This gives you a better look at the spinach.  I have to thin this out so each plant sits about 6 inches apart.  Tomorrow Joe and the family are coming up for dinner so I will thin these and have fresh steamed spinach and a nice green salad with the green onions and some canned green beans, potatoes and roast pork.  

The potatoes are all budded and should be blooming this next week, then we can start stealing a few new potatoes to eat, those are always the best.  All seven rows are in very good shape, we should have a good crop this year. 

These are some of the plants we set out. There are broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and onions.  I couldn’t get the whole row but you get the idea. 

These are some of the rows we planted to seeds, there are beets, spinach, Swiss Chard and broccoli. All of them are up but have a long way to go to catch up to the kitchen garden.  

The green beans are up good but as always some spots the beans didn’t come up and some beans came up but don’t have any leaves.  If there are still blank spots when the broccoli gets big enough to need thinning I will transplant some into the blank spots.  I hate to waste any ground.  

The corn is up and we have managed to keep the crows out so far.  In a week or so Norman will thin the corn and plant a been seed in between each corn. There are seven rows of corn also.  That seems to be the magic number.

Again I couldn’t get the whole garden in but this does show you a good part of it.   This week we have been doing more cleaning up.  Norman has brought down to the burn barrels all the brush piles that the kids and he pick up and I have been burning them. 

This is Norman moving the brush and trees that fell during the ice storm.  Picking up the brush and trees is only the first step, second we have to cut it up small enough to fit into the burn barrels and bring it to the barrels. After you burn it you have to empty the ashes and when they cool they have to be moved to the woods where they are needed to fill the holes .

He uses these small long poles for fences.  

These ashes are now cooled and now he is moving them to the woodland path and Monday he will empty the barrels so I can start new fires in both barrels.  Norman still has more brush and felled trees to bring in, the only thing is they aren’t in nice piles any more.  Now he has to cut them up and pick them up first.  

Beyond the lower garden is the wild blueberries and the path to the bluff.  We have picked up most of the blueberry patch and Landen cut up the big tree that fell across the path to the bluff.  This is the beginning of that path. 

A short way down the path you came to the first of the large logs that need to be brought to the barrels and beyond this is more brush and smaller trees to be cut up.  

This is the lower garden looking at it from the path to the bluff, it is the only way you can see the whole garden at once.   The gate is one we brought back from Florida, it was a piece left over from a project he had to do at our house there.  

The zucchini is up as is the butternut squash and the summer squash.

Last picture, these are some of the raspberry roots that I transplanted out of the raspberry bed.  When they spread into the path I take them out and trade then with a woman in McMinnville for her broccoli.  Her husband raises lots of broccoli and she make all kinds of jams and jellies but she has trouble getting raspberry.  I give her berries and roots so she can get a good patch of her own going and I get all the broccoli to freeze.  I like trading the best.  Have a great day.