IT'S SPRING TIME!

It's finally starting to feel like spring around these parts, and all things green are starting to turn up in the garden!  My seedlings have been spending more time outdoors, in preparation of the transplanting in a few days.

 

The fruiting fig tree that I thought was dead has even come back to life!  That tiniest of fruit buds on the tree has put a smile on my face everyday...

My favorite seeds to watch germinate are the colors and textures that comes from Swiss Chard...

I also ordered some hop rhizomes from Simple Earth Hops.  After planting them a week ago, new shoots are coming up everyday!  I need to get my act together on building a trellis...

 

 Columbus shoot

 

 Nugget shoots

Karma has also been enjoying the nice weather.  Her favorite past time is sunbathing on the picnic table...

 

HARVESTED.

 The winter blues started to kick in the other day, where I really missed working outside in the warm air and sunshine.  I pulled up some of my harvested pictures from my garden this year to put a smile on my face and warmth in my heart.

Happy winter everybody!

HARVEST SOME CHARD, BAKE A QUICHE

Today was an awesome day off, with no plans but whatever I felt like doing at the moment.  These were some of today's moments...

It finally cooled off a bit to spend some time in the garden, and I sowed some lemon balm, lemon basil, savoy summer and broccoli seeds.  I've also pretty much taken up the entire fence/patio area.

Please note the creepy floating toy bird.

I also harvested some lettuce today, as well as some nasturtium flowers, and two sugar snap peas for a dinner salad.

(not pictured: sugar snap peas)

After that, while I was thinning out my beets, I came across this guy:

AND she has eggs on her!

After all of that, I harvested some of the most beautiful Swiss chard I've ever grown.

STUNNING.

I also harvested some green onions, and then made my very first quiche.  It was a Swiss Chard and Feta quiche recipe I found online, and it turned out DELICIOUS.

I also baked some lemon shortbread cookies and received a beautiful bouquet of flowers, but we don't have photos of those.  Truly a lovely Saturday off!

GERMINATION STATION

Well, I did something right. Only 24 hours later, did my kale and collard seeds start germinating! I kind of figured these would be the ones that would germinate first, only because last season I sowed them directly into the beds and they came up crazy fast. Either way, the whole seed to food process still fascinates me.

Little germinating Collard seed

My favorite seed so far has to be the Rainbow Swiss Chard. I'm a sucker for anything with obscure texture and color. So when these little guys started popping up, my heart melted a bit.

Rainbow Swiss Chard

Overall, both beds are doing great! I'm so happy, and really, this is all much easier than I anticipated. I'm still getting the outside ready for planting; I did toss some flower seeds in some of our containers today since it was so nice out. It might be a little early, but I figured why not and see what happens!

More of the little guys


My puppy and some spring flowers