In the beginning...

It's sort of like the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg. When does the garden start each year: when the ground thaws enough to start poking in seeds - or when you order the seeds - or when you make this year's plot plan after reviewing last year's plans and notes...? Maybe the answer is, the garden never really ends. If you're a die-hard gardener, you are either planning, planting or harvesting, year round!
In a previous post I noted the "spring cleaning" of the chicken house happens the day we do the first tilling, so the partially composted bedding can be worked into the ground several weeks before planting dates. The following photos were taken the same day as the house cleaning party. In the words of a well-known author, "It was a dark and stormy night..." Oh, wait, that's a different story. It was a chill and foggy morn... (May 15, I think) The stars were aligned, Brent was available, the kids had a big breakfast of waffles under their belts, it was THE DAY!!



New work gloves for the slaves - these kids work hard, and every one of them, including Max, has their own work gloves. They actually wear them out...
One for all and all for one!
Brent finally quit hogging the tiller and let Carrie take it for a spin. She took it over. They are very competitive when it comes to their toys...


The tiller was a rental from our local farmer's co-op. It was shiny new, right out of the box.
Dad and son consult. The kid is turning into a reliable hard working teen, his Scout leaders love his initiative and ability to work - most of the boys his age don't have a clue how to work. Thanks, dad!
OK, so the girls are hard workers, too. Under Carrie's tutelege, Amanda is also developing work ethics and can stick to a job until it's done. Maybe it's the hats....
Finishing up a new section we decided to add to the overall footage this year. A garden is a constant work in progress, every year brings new experiments, new plants to try.

Now that's DIRT, folks. The good kind~
Thank you, worm. We couldn't do it without you! (That's Amanda's hand - she is not your typical girly girl...)

Five weeks later...the weather has warmed up, the planting is done, everything got a good layer of mulch after the last big storm dumped several inches of rain on us, and we are happy to report things are finally growing. A late, cold, wet spring got us off to a slow start this year, but the garden is shaping up.

We planted blueberry bushes in the hoop house, it was already covered with chicken wire from it's incarnation as last summer's chicken house. The wire will keep the birds out of the berries when the time comes - not to mention deer browsing through.
Remember the little fruit trees from Stark's? They are doing great - here's the dwarf pear, all leafed out. Pepper patch in the background.
News flash - the broccoli has several heads ready to cut - not huge, but more on the way.
Guess what this is?? ZUCHINNI!! Blossoming! I'm still trying to figure out how we ended up with 5 zuchinni plants. Two were plenty last year... This afternoon we were all naming our favorite ways to eat zuchinni. One of the kids mentioned chocolate zuchinni bread, another liked zuchinni muffins, another liked fried zuchinni - well, we might be able to eat at least half of the crop...
Onions! Red and yellow. You can never have too many onions. We can dry them, or chop and freeze them. I laugh at the kids, they swear they don't like onions, but they have no idea how many things we cook that have onions in the recipe and they don't even realize it. We're sneaky that way...

The herb garden is always first to show growth, it's like spring tonic to see those first little sprouts. I love weeding the herbs, they all smell so good. The hay in the background are old round bales that have been there for several years. We use them for mulch when we aren't using them for sitting on or for work surfaces or wind breaks...
Woohoo!! The peas are blossoming!
And here's my shadow. Jetta misses Sage as much as I do. She follows me around outside, and finds my lap immediately when I sit down indoors. She even plays "tackle", dashing up to grab my leg as I'm walking by her hideouts.
Jetta made the trip out from Washington with us. She actually started her little life with us tucked into Than's shirt (the Big Trip year) after we found her and her littermates abandoned in a rain storm at the age of 4 weeks. She is a good companion for me - she enjoys gardening, like I do; she favors soft beds, like I do; she really loves bird watching, like I do...wait a minute - there may be an ulterior motive there...