Getting under way

Spring has finally arrived (a few weeks later than last year) and the garden has thawed and dried out enough to start the season.

As usually, the first plant up was the wild onion. This patch is slowly expanding and there might even be enough of it to get a harvest off!

As we've waited for spring, I've been spending a lot of time in the kitchen. One of my goals this year is to learn a few new recipes. Indian seems like a favour so I have been making paneer. And then I've bee cleaning out the veggies we froze last summer to make things like saag paneer.

We decided to start a few plants inside this year. I planted a two types of tomatoes and also the last of the melon seeds (an indoor start may be more effective than our efforts last year). Jess planted a bunch of flowers.

Last weekend, we got out in the back yard to put up the bean and pea trellises. Jess is strong enough to swing the sledge hammer. No injuries so we'll call that a success.

It is a bit hard to see but as the beans and peas rotate into the north bean, we're trying some vertical gardening. Against the fence (right) are the raspberries. The a high trellis with peas and later beans. On the left is a lower trellis for peas and some low plants in the open bed on far left.

After we got all of this banged into place... it snowed. Fortunately, it quickly melted.

This drove us back into the kitchen for some korma and a strawberry-rhubarb pie. We canned the filling last summer and it was delicious.

The melt revealed the first of the bulbs (tulip tarde) are up. Each year I try to clean these guys out of the vegetable bed and move them around front. And, each year, more appear!

While the back bed dried out (again), we planted a couple of hundred storage onions in the front yard.

Jess unearthed a couple of ladybugs to play with so I finished the onions.

 We also got the peas and a few beets in. The chives are also up in the back.

And there are the first few sprouts of the rhubarb. Last year's rhubarb wine was amazing. This year I want to try strawberry wine.

The seed we plated last week are also just beginning to sprout in the window.

So far this weekend, I've cleaned the bed behind the garage. I may plant some lettuce there as the raised beds are warm. The daunted task of raking the lawn also beckons.