Now We're Getting Somewhere

Things are really moving now. Although a frost over last weekend (while I was in Las Vegas and Alex was in Ohio) did kill our early girl tomato, the rest of the place is looking quite alive. The chickens are so much happier now that they can venture outdoors more. They are also eating less food, which is nice.

This might be my fav - yes, that is our old Christmas tree, sitting behind the blooming azalea. The Azalea also hides our compost pile, so it isn't getting trimmed any time soon.

The peonies are poking out of the ground at the rate of about a foot a week. Buds are forming! I can't wait for the hot pinks and baby pinks to shower our yard.

In the raised beds, we are trying something different this year. Last year our greens were devoured by cabbage worms, and I hated spraying them. Now we're trying row cover to let them get established before we expose them to the little grubs. Water and light still comes through, and a lot of our kale overwintered, so we are only a week or so away from our first harvest!!

Hardy herbs are rocking, despite my refusal to weed them properly.

Blossoms around the yard

I pay very little attention to the flowers in my yard. Mostly because I give little thought to stuff I don't eat. However, my squash vine has a million buds, and very few squash, so I wondered what's up. Turns out there are both male and female squash blossoms. The female blossoms have tiny little fruits underneath while the male are on long stems, but the females need pollination to continue in fruit production. I think the butterflies and bees in my yard are down on the job.

This got me thinking about all the other flowers in the yard, so I rounded up some images.

Marigolds, protecting the tomatoes

Male squash blossom

Female cucumber blossom

Rose of Sharon

Daisies, which dot the yard since we rarely weed whack

I think this is purple gayfeather, but don't know for sure since it came with the house. It's great at attracting bees, so I'm glad it's so near the raised beds.

Amaranth - almost ready to harvest!!!