Spring is Finally Here...Kind of.

Apple tree

Woke up this morning the sun was shining, birds were chirping, and I put on SHORTS!  Walking through the orchard I noticed that the buds on the apple trees have burst open, even the raspberry bushes have green leaves out.  It reached 75 degrees today and I got my first sunburn of the year.

Row of Gladiolas

We started the day planting two rows of gladiolas, this is going to be awesome in the middle of summer when they all start to bloom.  We have two rows of gladiolas in the hoop house that were planted about two weeks ago, there are a few just poking through the ground so we will have an early crop as well. We also spent some time planting some of the flowers we got at Bergens last week.  Lissa spent some time over the weekend putting flowers in planters around the house, but there were still tons of flowers to be planted.  Lissa has an eye for planters; every one she puts together is incredible.

Lissa's creations

The radishes are HUGE.  We will be harvesting them for the first time tomorrow; we will also harvest mizuna (asian green), spinach, and kale.  This crop will be heading to the Green Scene in Walker, MN.  We will be providing vegetables to them all season, so if you are in the area stop by and check it out.

radishes for dinner

A lot of kale

A bucket of spinach

spinach the size of my hand

We made compost tea, which is a great way to fertilize any plants organically and cheaply.  Take a few good shovel loads of compost to cover the bottom of a bucket then fill it with water.  We used the compost tea to water all the things we had harvested.  Whatever is left behind after harvesting can get a little limp because there roots were disturbed by the poking and prodding, so it helps to give it the extra boost.
There are lots of flowers blooming.  It is so exciting to see this, as we have had such a long cold spring. 

Tulip

Daffodil

Daffodil

Bloodroot

Bloodroot has been used by Native Americans for many medicinal uses, such as treating migraines, a diuretic, and it even has anti-fungal properties.  Native Americans also used the dark red liquid that comes from the stem as dyes and paint.  Seems like a pretty nice flower to have growing in the backyard.  

Living on a farm has perks.  Lissa gave me a bouquet of daffodils, pickles, peach jam, apple butter, and tomato chutney.  These came from last years crop, I am looking forward to learning a lot more about canning this fall.

Last week we tilled the asparagus patch up and then I raked all the weeds and roots out of it.  It helped, we now have quite a few shoots poking through including this one that is huge.  I ate it...it was delicious.