Spring is Officially Here

Spring is a very, very short window around here.  It moves quickly into summer.  We're already seeing afternoon temps in the mid-80's.  We will enjoy the mornings in the 60's while we still have them, cherish them and relish them.  They will soon be a distant memory as the humidity rolls in.  Enough of that melancholy talk!

The plants are all sporting new growth and the very last tree in our area that puts on leaves are the pecan trees.  Some folks say that is how you can tell that spring has officially arrived.  Well, it is here.  The warmer weather has provoked the pecans to come out of dormancy.  They have quickly put out fresh, green growth and they'll soon be providing shade.  The cows, goats and chickens like to sit underneath them and nap.

The garden is quickly growing as well.  Everything is coming up aside from some Ozark Razorback Peas that I planted.  They were old.  I had saved them in 2012 and planted them this year to rotate my old saved seed inventory.  Well, due to their age, I only achieved about a 50% germination rate.  I'll likely fill in the gaps with a bunch more planted closely to use the old seed up and get a better stand.

The other peas and beans are popping up in every row.  I love to see seedlings popping up in an otherwise barren landscape.

From the cotyledons come fresh first true leaves that soon open in the sunlight.  Spring is an optimistic, hopeful time.  Each new day brings noticeable growth in the garden.

Along with the coming of the new, there is the finishing up of the old.  The fall crop is about gone.  The last of the dinosaur kale will be chopped and fed to the cows.  At this time of year, they get little bugs all over them.  The swiss chard is still producing well.  We have two more kohlrabi plants to harvest.

The last of the fall crop is the bull's blood beets.  You can spot them by their leaves that look like bulls bled all over them.  They are quite colorful in the garden contrasted with the green leaves of the beans growing nearby.

We have started harvesting them and Tricia cuts them up and roasts them in the oven.  A very tasty side dish, that's for sure.  We had pickled beets in a salad today and they were delicious!

Perhaps Sunday I'll post an update on the garden and show you what's growing and give a progress report on the spring garden.