Y’all, spring is busting out all over! Hooray!

The moon will be full about the time you read this, May 12. With the full moon, the moon begins to wane and garden duties are more passive like weeding, pruning, but also planting or starting root crops out in the garden.

 The waxing moon is for active plant duties like starting seeds, transplanting seedlings and transplanting established plants, (the sign of a long-time gardener).

All of our garlic has come up, 90 bulbs, and our first asparagus is coming out as well as some of the potatoes I planted two weeks ago!

Speaking of potatoes, I’m trying some of them in tubs this year. The idea is to plant on top of six or eight inches of soil and as they come up keep adding soil around them. They will produce tubers all along the main stalk. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

My husband and I are just finishing our latest varmint-proof planting area. It’s 18 feet by 10 feet with a keyhole design, a path down the center with beds on three sides. After digging down about 14 inches we lined the beds with one half inch hardware cloth.

After returning the native soil (ash), we amended it with a yard of horse manure and a yard of garden soil from Spring Hill nursery. We then mixed the layers a bit and have been watering the beds to settle them and let the soil mellow before planting in about two weeks. In spite of what I said last time, I’ll have to plant before knee surgery on the 28th; ‘do as I say…’

We are arching stock panels over the beds between pony walls Michael built. They will have hardware cloth over the top. We made the roof a cantenary style arch, like ‘The Gateway Arch,’ in St Louis, the strongest form for load-bearing.

I transplanted my seedlings into larger pots last week and they are booming!  The greenhouse is full of starts, all from seed. I’m still harvesting kale that I started in the greenhouse last fall. I just harvested all my beet greens. The plants did not form beets. Possibly because they don’t like growing in a greenhouse. We certainly have beau coup of beautiful, tender greens. I use them in salads on sandwiches and in dinner recipes. We also had parsley, chives, rosemary and thyme all winter in the greenhouse.

You know it’s been such a pleasant spring. No hard frosts while our fruit trees were in bloom. To quote a Judy Collins song “life goes so slowly up here in the mountains.” It’s that delicious time of year. The birds are nesting in the houses Michael  built and bathing in our water bowls; the breezes are sweet and temperatures are perfect. We did have three days of gale-force cold winds and a dusting of fir pollen covers everything. I’m not complaining.

For two septuagenarians, we’ve been working our butts off, and yet I still have an ample bottom. Our goal is to grow enough potatoes, onions, garlic, green beans, tomatoes and winter squash to get us through to next growing season. I just ordered a portable two burner propane cooker, so I can do my canning outside (when it’s too hot to cook inside).

I’m hoping your gardens are burgeoning and that I’m contributing to your enthusiasm in the gardening world. You are always welcome to ask questions. My email address is [email protected]. Please be respectful.

We’ll talk again soon. In the meantime remember, time spent by a creek or in a woodland helps you feel lighter and makes the world seem brighter.

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