Le printemps chez nous

Here's what things are looking like around our house these days. Spring has sprung here with a bang, with beautiful warm sunny days that made us feel like it was May rather than March. I got out in the garden as soon as I could to start scoping out the situation and to see what needed to be done before we could plant anything. Florent helped me turn the dirt over in the vegetable garden and cut down a dying plum tree, so that we could plant a fig tree in its place.

Happy Forsythias

Nyah, tightrope walker extraordinaire!

I love this border, it reminds me of something you'd see in an old graveyard.

Strawberries popping up in the garden.

Lettuce too...

Pansies to decorate the chicken coop

Sage, dill and a strange little shovel I found buried in the veggie garden last year, all planted in a farmhouse sink the old owners left in the yard.

The rhubarb is coming up...

and so are the chives

lovely green grass which needs mowing

a good place to sit at the end of the day

We loved our vegetable garden last year. We basically didn't have to buy any veggies during the summer, and ate well into the fall from things we canned. So I decided this year that if last year's was good, this year's would be better. And being American, I obviously believe that bigger is better right? So we decided to double the size of our garden. We walked it off with Florent, measured the area we thought we'd need. He sunk posts and we borrowed a little cultivator from a friend and Florent turned over the grass and dirt to get it ready, before putting up the fencing.
We had a lot of help from Gladys, Ethel and Mabel. We locked them in after Florent turned everything over, and they spent an afternoon digging thru the dirt in search of worms and larvae. I love my earthworms, but I figure they can have the ones on the surface since they need protein, and we get it back in the form of eggs. The best thing is that they leave the surface wonderfully flat and raked thru, perfect for sowing.
I'll put my potatoes in this Friday, in honor of my Grandpa Claude, who always planted his potatoes on Good Friday. I have lots of good memories of his potato patch...Grandpa used to get us grandkids out there and he'd turn over the dirt with his pitchfork, then we'd dig around and pull out the worms. We'd stick them in a Folger's coffee can with some good Illinois dirt, then head off to bed. The next morning, Grandpa would load the grandkids into the car, coffee can and fishing poles in the trunk. We spent many fun hours on Sandy Creek, and I'm not sure how many fish we caught, but those memories with my brothers and sisters and cousins will always warm my heart.













Farm Man and Farm Baby putting in fenceposts.

Hmmmm looks like a lot of space to fill, but I think we can do it!