Sunday, March 20th
The icy days have gone away, the azaleas are blooming, and we’ve got tomatoes growing in the back yard. It’s official, spring is here again!
I suppose I should start with those that came first, the fruit trees that I planted a few years ago. For the most part, everything made it through this past winter without too much damage. The lemon tree (left) is strong as ever, and is flush with blooms that are attracting a number of bees every day. The lime tree (right) survived this winter much better than the year before, and the mint has completely filled in the lower portion of the container.
A close up of the lime clusters:
Unfortunately, the top portion of the avocado tree got nipped pretty badly during the cold spells we had this year. It seems to be coming back pretty strongly from the lower branches though, so hopefully it will manage to recover with a little TLC.
This year’s vegetable garden is taking on a slightly different configuration. From the past two year’s experimentation, I have decided to focus on Carmelos as my main tomato variety. These proved to be the hardiest, most prolific variety that I grew last year, I had one tomato plant produce as much as the other three I planted! I also have decided to pass on growing peppers this spring, I’ve been extremely disappointed with how they have performed the last two years so have filled that space with other things.
I can’t resist trying a little something new each year, and this year’s new tomato is called Yellow Pear. The Yellow Pear is a smaller tomato, a little larger than a grape tomato, and should produce lots of small tomato clusters. I’ve read the flavor is very unique, so I’m really looking forward to trying it.
I planted two rows of corn in the back of the garden, and several rows of beans. I left a little bit of free space, and will be sowing another few rows of beans in a week or two. When planting the corn, and I must admit I felt a little stupid being surprised by this, but my seed pack was full of corn kernels! I guess I’ve always known that’s where corn comes from, but it was cool seeing them as dried up seeds ready to be planted.
And to round things out, a few photos of the this year’s herbs, parsley and basil, and the blackberry bushes.
With any luck, next week we’ll see some bean and corn sprouts!
