Let the Gardening Begin!

We have officially started the garden. I know I sort of started with a kitchen nursery of tomatoes, peppers, and various flowers, but today the kids and I actually got into the dirt outside and planted a few things. I turned the smallest planting box over to Bronwyn, and she was very excited to try short rows of several things. She has radishes, onions from seed, cilantro, peas, and I think some cosmos. She loves flowers. I actually got to use the compost from my compost bin from last season, but I really need a bunch more. And a couple of my planting boxes need real dirt. They have too much of that artificial, soilless stuff. The worms don't like it. Bronwyn and Liam were excited to find loads of worms in the soil we turned over today, and Liam kept feeding worms to the chickens. He got to plant two rows of lettuce, which was the vegetable he picked out. I planted a few more short rows of peas too. It felt so good to be outside today, too. The weather has been cool and very wet for the last few days, so today's sun felt delicious.

The apple trees are starting to leaf out, and I can see lots of flower buds on our Fuji apple tree. The honeycrisp tree has a very different branching habit, and I'm not sure what it is going to do. I didn't end up doing any pruning on them this year because I didn't know what to do. I read a few things about pruning apples, but they seemed to conflict, so I left the trees alone.

The peach trees survived their "haircuts" and have had a profusion of light pink blossoms on them. Yay! And the blackberry twiglet I planted last year sent out a couple of runners last year that have taken root. It looks like it is really going to take off this year, so I had better get some kind of support for it before it gets out of control. I actually wouldn't mind if it took over the spot that it is in.

Now if I can just get the lawn fertilized (I wonder if it's too late for a pre-emergent?) and mowed. Owen promised to do the mowing on Monday. That will feel great. My tulips are coming up nicely, but I sure want more spring-blooming color for next year.

Hands in the dirt. Sun on my face. It's a great day.