Note to Caroline: First harvest of sorts

Caroline, your garden looks great! I can't believe how much you have done in a very short time and

now it seems as if you are in full blown spring planting mode. I have a padded envelope full of the seeds that I have started to post to you tomorrow. I had a few packets from last year so we are actually sharing more than we indicated on our 2013 seed list. I hope you guys enjoy beets because we have three varieties of them. Here are some photos I took from the community plot this morning.

Here is the lettuce that I harvested this morning. Basically I was thinning it out.

Good news-no slugs this year yet.

Potatoes that I did not plant. I have discovered that I have at least six plants that someone put in last year.

My only concern is that it is going to take up room that I had anticipated for other vegetables.

Here are those Cha Cha Chives. I clipped a little of it off for my dinner salad.

A raised bed project in progress at the community garden.

Lavender in bloom.

Sage. I love Sage!

I planted 4 Cherry Tomatoes this morning. It is a tad early, but I was able to buy 4 plants for 0.79c.

Photo of the greens I harvested today. Hopefully the peas will be ready in another few weeks.

Here is a video about making an American Salad from the Garden Girl.



Note to Michele: My April Garden

Dear Michele,

Today, I took my camera out in the garden to show you my April garden.  The forsythia are in full bloom.

 

 My daughter planted three flats of pansies in a new garden flower garden we made. I've been dividing perennials from my old borders to add to this new little flower garden. We've added lupine, day lilies, iris, daisies, creeping phlox and a tall variety of phlox.

 The tiny pansies are always so cheerful this time of year and don't mind the chill.

My rhubarb plant is growing rapidly. I planted this last year.

 

 We have several varieties of daffodils. Some are naturalizing in the woods. I'm not even sure how they got there!

 

The Egyptian walking onions and chives are growing quickly.

 

Indoors I've started lettuce, parsley, spinach and cosmos. I planted some of these same seeds outdoors in the raised beds as well. I also planted sweet peas in my daughter's flower bed.

 My mother and father started some pussy-willows from cuttings of their own pussy-willow tree. Today I planted a tiny tree which they gave me. It will be nice to have pussy-willows to cut each spring. Their tree is huge now.

 Below you see the little pussy-willows gone by and the tree is starting to leaf out. To root these my mother and father simply cut branches and stuck them in some dirt last year and now we have a little tree.

What's happening in your garden?

Until next time....
Caroline

An Inspiring Edible Churchyard

During our visit to Boston this past week, we walked from Boston Common to Copley Square to pay our respects at the Boston Marathon bombing memorial. Along the way, not far from the site of the Boston Marathon bombings, we passed a beautiful, inspiring site. When I saw this sign, I knew I needed to share this with Sprouts readers. Right in the heart of Boston, amidst the hustle and bustle, the traffic, and the noise we found this small garden on the Old South Church yard,. This is the Garden Of Eden: An Edible Churchyard.

In April, the garden looks ready to be planted for the upcoming season.

The produce will be donated to the The Women's Lunch Place where homeless women and children will be nourished by the bounty raised here.

At home I turned to the Internet to learn more about this inspiring garden. I found this video by John at Growing Your Greens, one of our favorite YouTube gardeners. He visited Boston in Autumn 2010 and shot this video showing the garden at the end of the season. Just think of all the food that could be grown to feed those in need if every place of worship with a plot of earth-big or small- planted an edible churchyard!

To learn more about the historic Old South Church visit their website here.

To learn more about The Women's Lunch Place visit their website here.

Spring Flowers at Boston Common

On our recent visit to Boston, we strolled through the 50 acre Boston Common to see the springtime flowers. The flowering trees were in bloom giving the oldest park in America a lovely pink misty glow. It was a perfect April day in the park.

Flowers in Copley Square

Yesterday, while visiting family in Boston, we walked over to Copley Square to pay our respects to the victims of the Boston Marathon tragedy. On this beautiful spring day, when flowers were blooming all around the city, thousands stopped by to lay flowers, leave toys and sneakers, write messages, and pay their respects. Here are some images from the memorial in Boston.

Walk to the Garden-April, Portland, OR

Note to Michele: The Spring Butterfly and The Easter Tablecloth

Hi Michele, 

Even though my world is still a palate of browns and grays,  I think I accidentally tricked this butterfly into believing I have a garden in full bloom! A few days ago, I draped my Easter tablecloth over the deck railing to dry, yet unwittingly attracted a butterfly. It's a bit early for butterflies here, so I was surprised.

Then it landed on the tablecloth and started looking for nectar the way butterflies do. I do believe this poor creature thought it found the mother of all early spring gardens. As you can see the tablecloth has bright tulips and daffodils on it, as well as blue butterflies. And this poor thing thought it was the real deal. A butterfly's dream come true!

 

So, I put my Easter Lily on the rail, hoping it would see the flowers and go for some real nectar. It didn't work. The butterfly was so interested in this tablecloth, it ignored the beautiful REAL flowers nearby. I wondered how long the butterfly would ignore the real blossom for the tablecloth. But, I felt pity for it, so pulled the tablecloth inside. Later in the week, I put it outside again, just to see what would happen and before long I noticed a bee buzzing around the tablecloth.

Which has me pondering. If a gardener would like to attract more bees and butterflies to the garden when real flowers are in need of pollination, could a tablecloth like this be useful? Or would they just ignore the real flowers for this fake garden?

Mahatma Gandhi said, "An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it." Tell that to the butterfly!