Peonies, bees, peas and spinach

It has been a very busy busy couple of weeks, mostly occupied with weeding and watering in the yard. 

The peonies have started to bloom, which is lovely. And the bees have been in them and the chives non-stop.

The peas have been jumping and this morning were as tall as the top of the trellis (which is 5 feet). They are starting to set pods, with the south facing peas being about two weeks ahead of the west facing ones.

The potatoes are flowering and have been hoed up as best I can. It has been very warm so I'm hopeful we'll have a good crop this year. The squash seeds have germinated, with the butter nut being way more successful than the zucchini.

The harvested the spinach out front and re-seeded some lettuce.

The spinach tasted great in smoothies. I have been fighting quite a battle with cut worms this spring on the west-most lettuce bed. I used to see a few a year and I was digging up three or more a day for awhile.

The irises are also blooming our front. It looks like the raspberries are beginning to take on the south fence. I've been watering them and hoping for the best.

If I get ambitious this weekend, I will try out the new food dehydrator and do some of the mint, oregano, and maybe wild onions that are coming up on the side. Next week is supposed to be a stretch of +30 or more weather.

Fence, raspberries and potatoes

After some delay, we finally got the new fence installed in the back yard. This has meant we can move ahead with some of the next steps in developing the garden.

The fence also does a good job of closing in the yard. While we were waiting, the potatoes really started to jump up!

The north potato bed needs some work after the autumn's digging. Our first step was to dig out the raspberry suckers that were invading it.

These got replanted on the outside of the new fence (about 70 feet of them). I have also reserved some space for some haskap berries. 

Jess and Jenn did most of the planting while I dug suckers and quarterbacked.

Inside the yard, the beans have come up nicely. We also planted a later crop of carrots and some butternut squash. I spent some time taming the mess that had developed beneath the apple tree in the yard.

The was have also jumped up! Almost two feet high on the south-facing wall of the garage. I'm hopeful for a goo crop this year.

Our next steps include burning down a bunch of hedge clippings to open up access to the north fence line. This needs some serious weeding and then more raspberry suckers can be transplanted (I really like raspberries).