Garlic, Strawberries and Fish (not together!)

We have been busy this month, doing things that need doing and doing a few things that we just want to do.  The garden has been front and center - this years rains and the wet winter left me with a bumper crop of persistent weeds!  I am trying not to complain, there are folks not too far away that do not have gardens this years because of the flooding that is still going on.  I am grateful for the weeds...sort of...I'm working on it!

 Finally got my beans planted, so I have two kinds of cucumbers, two kinds of squash (trying an acorn squash this year) multi-color bell peppers, corn, onions, tomatoes and garlic.  The whole garden is weeded for now, but it is raining tonight again, and then the sun will shine.....sigh!
It is good exercise!

 The herb garden is going great, the mint, lemon balm, oregano, sage, chives,  feverfew, and edible lavender are already having to be harvested.  The strawberries (in the front and right of the photo) are ripening at a very satisfying rate!

I managed to be in California for the strawberry season and now they are ripening here.  I love strawberries!  I eat a few and then freeze a few.  There is an angel food cake on my counter that is waiting to be a bed for strawberries tomorrow.  Yum!

My great garlic experiment continues.  I have harvested the 'scapes'.  These are the center stalks of 'hardneck' garlic that would become a bloom and seeds if left on the plant. The theory is that the plant will put all of its energy into the bulb (a good thing) if there is no bloom to steal the nutrients.  They are interesting looking and I cut them all off this week.

Here is my bag of scapes.  I had been reading about this and all of the web pages talked about eating them.  Apparently they can be used either like garlic or like a green onion, one page even roasted them like a green bean.  I have now tried them in an omelet and they were very good. A milder taste than the cloves. I am going to save some to use fresh, freeze some and use some to infuse olive oil.  This is almost as exciting as having the garlic ripen!  Isn't it fun to try something new?!

Our beautiful, gnarled, corkscrew willow is developing cracks.  We have an arborist coming out to cut on him and see if he can be saved.  I hope so as it is a lovely tree.  It is, however, too close to the house to just let it be.

 

The rains have made for a lush yard this year as well.  This particular day it was overcast and the whole place looked green and beautiful.

I'm not complaining - it hasn't gotten hot yet!

Hubby and friend went fishing this week and caught these lovelies!  I put the full size fork there to give a sense of the size.  One of our goals this summer is to do a lot more fishing than we have in recent years.  Hopefully putting a few more packages of this sort in the freezer as well!




Hubby is busy with his rapidly growing tomato crop and we are planning two new raised beds this summer that we hope to have done for fall planting.  One in the front yard for bulbs and perennial flowers and the other on the far eastern side of the garden to have perhaps asparagus and a few pollinator friendly flowers.  We may even have enough time to get the house painted this year - it really needs it.  It is the busy season and after the long winter even I was ready for it.  I should be complaining about the heat though in a month or so! 

It's not that warm!

So there we were, Hubby and I, having a conversation about whether or not 45 degrees (7 C) is cold!  "Of course it is" you say - however there is some question about this.  We may be dealing with relativity here - not the Einstein stuff (obviously-it is us!) - but the part about if it has been a long cold winter and the sun comes out and you are comfortable in your long sleeved shirt without a coat working in the yard is it warm?  See?  We are acclimated now, we have kept the house at about 60 all winter long and worn warm clothes, we have gone out on days when it was so cold you thought you might never get warm again!  So now we went outside and the sun is out and I just think our subconscious minds were so excited that they told our bodies to shut up!  Look at that blue sky!

The corkscrew willow is more interesting when you can see it without its leaves!

We did go outside to work today - definitely have a case of spring fever!  We have been taking a long look at finances and food costs and our plans for the gardening and did a little rethinking!  (funny how that happens!)  While the really nice expensive raised beds are still the goal, for now we are going to increase the size of the area for 'in ground gardening' (I am calling it 'freestyle') and the time to do that is now as the ground is not soggy but soft and damp and we have grass to cut out.  We think we will dedicate the raised bed we currently have to tomatoes and peppers as we are running short of canned tomatoes now and that means we need more this summer!  It is exciting to plan the planting after a long indoor spell - I don't like heat and am not looking forward to summer but I think I am looking forward to spring!


We will use the sod we cut out to make a berm to keep the flood irrigation water out of the garden and add about 5' x 40' to the garden area.  This will give us a space for the raspberries, strawberries and blueberries we have been wanting to plant, and more room to put in a lot of beans and corn which are two of our favorites,  room for a section of root crops and another whole row of peas this year!  (If you are going to dream - dream big I always say)

Can you see in the photo the shovel and the row of holes even with the end of the shed - Yes, yes it is a big job - fortunately hubby is just about stir crazy and ready to have outdoor jobs!  

And look, apparently the weeds think it is warm as well - isn't that lovely....sigh...gotta take the good with the bad, or the bad with the good..sigh....there are always weeds!