Well, the beets are up about 2 and a half inches. I just put out the snap peas a few days ago, and they're already up. I soaked them awhile (er... aliitle longer than I meant to)and that seemed to help them come up faster. Or it might've just been time. the lettuce in the coldframes is doing okay. I just thinned and transplanted the babies. this year, instead of just getting a salad mix, I got all reds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. I'm still waiting to put the tomatoes in the ground. they're hardened off now, even though I think they got a bit shocked by some of the cold nights.

this is my second year doing the garden at what used to be my parents' home. We've been putting lots of cow manure in the ground, ashes, and bone meal. I just got a used Troy-Bilt horse. I'm still doing some hand cultivation, but the Horse is like a big mixer that digs all the goodies into the ground. wow. I'm using cardboard and straw for mulch between the rows. buying a $650 ford truck was a very good investment for the garden. There's a stockyard out by the dump in rustburg and they'll load it in the truck with a big machine with a bucket for free. It's not always the best, but it does get to age at least some. So far all the plants rave about it.

The flowers are awfully exciting to me right now. Yesterday I transplanted all the flower babies out into a refurbished bed in front of the house. Lots of red orange and purple zinnias in back, fronted by red pyrethrums and blue queen salvia, with a carpet of multicolored gazanias in front of it all. I'm afraid it's gonna look like landscaping at a bank or something.... but it should be colorful. Definitely more orderly than is my habit. How lovely though, to nurture the seedbed babies, and finally be able to set them out into the enriched raised bed where overgrown boxwood used to be.

For all the chaos that I'm left with after the deaths of my aged parents, I can create one corner of order and (hopefully) beauty. It is overwhelming sometimes, as there are areas of entrenched over growth.... My mother got the notion one year to plant crown vetch in the flowerbed, and there's a real problem with wisteria, of all things. It's actually strangled 2 trees I know of to death, and it's working on another couple of them. It comes up anywhere. I'll do a separate posting about that sometime, I'm sure.

The first mow of the year is kindof a sacrament to me. That was fun. I just did that the other day. Evening out all the disorder of the Winter, Darkness. Especially this year for me. I was the caregiver for my brother, mother and father this last year at the end of their lives. My brother died in August, then Mom succumbed to her cancer December 15, and Dad's heart took him February 21. The Sibs conspired to insist that I inherit the parents' home, the place I ran away from as a teenager... so here I am at 47. It's kind of the stuff from a good novel.

I took a bunch of fig cuttings earlier in the spring. I expected maybe half would make it... All but about 3 are leafing out. I haven't checked their roots. Yes, I should've used clear cups, but I had plastic cups and they were white, oh well. so I have about 20 brown turkey fig starts I think. I have a whole southfacing side of the house that would be perfect for a fig operation. I do wonder if I'd be doing a "crown vetch" if I put figs en masse right by the house. I still have some time to think about it, as there are boxwoods that have to be removed, and the figs are but wee sticks. I got a seedless persimmon too that I planted in a real good hole, but not a bud openning on it. I wonder if this is normal for a new planting. Well, it's time for watching and seeing. speaking of which, I must go outside and see. thanks for asking. It was nice to just sit downa nd write about it. Gaia

Welcome to Virginia, Gaia. It sounds like you are really making a lot of progress!

The wisteria can be pruned back. Quite severely! Have a very sturdy arbor ready for the new sprouts-shoots-15' vines it will make. I've read of folks who prune wisteria a couple times a year, but I stuck to just once in the winter for my mum's wisteria. I think the amount of pruning required depends on the variety, as well as just how much you want to limit growth.

BTW, keep in mind that most Brown Turkey fig plants grow about 15-20' tall and 10+' wide. That's even when the tops and tips get freeze-kill. What on earth are you going to do with all those figs?! -Same thing I said to DH last night as he was admiring his new figlets, but he just replied with The Look. (You know, The Look you is what you get from your college kid going out the door, when you automatically say Don't stay out too late, and it's spring break.)

Lewie, I'm letting DH do most of the vegs this year. So far the peas are about 5" tall, and the lettuce is doin well. He did put row cover over the lettuce each time a freeze was expected. I'll check the soil temp, but I expect the tomatoes to be transplanted this weekend, and -if it doesn't rain too much- the beans will be put in.

Thanks all! Gaia, your plantings sound wonderful - and a seem a good relief from the winter of darkness. Regarding the 'bank' look - there is a gas station nearby with plantings and decorations that many would envy! Well, my little lettuce home starts are considering growing - I suppose I am just at their mercy.