Spring gardens up-springing

My angelica (left) and betony (right) are much happier in their new place in the yard. They are both forest plants and need a bit of shade and a bit of sun. It's too dark for many flowers and herbs in that area, but they're happier than ever.

Kale (the sprouts) and winter savoury (the herb with dark leaves at the top). I'll need to thin out the kale a bit eventually. I didn't expect the seeds to be so prolific after a couple years of hanging out in my seed box.

 My first garden from last year. I have a second row of lasagna garden to the right of it now. It's settling in and getting ready to be planted. (My birthday gift)

The blueberry bushes seem to have survived the minor depredations of a rabbit over the winter.

The flax is coming up nicely.

Meadowsweet (top) and horehound (front)

The sweet violets and strawberries are doing fine even though Stew the squirrel uprooted one.

Columbine

Columbine (left), beebalm (center), and beardtongue (bottom) are all well-loved by pollinators. They were part of my birthday gift. I was tired of having a barren wasteland of lawn out front. Going to the garden centre was part of my gift. I love the way it smells. I think the added oxygen in the atmosphere gives me a bit of a high, actually. Or, maybe I'm just kinda crazy and love plants that much...
It's been raining for the past week straight. Yesterday the sun finally came out, and it continues today, although it did go down below zero last night (Celsius not Farenheit). I'm hoping my plants did okay. I was so tired I forgot to cover them. Oops.

Bee balm

Beardtongue

Two thrifty gift ideas with minimal/no sewing

Here are some great craft ideas that involve minimal to no sewing. Making gifts at home is a thrifty way to reduce waste, help the environment, and don't take forever to make and a PhD in engineering.

1.

Starting a new garden bed

A garden is nothing without a good foundation, and that foundation is the soil. Soil has its own complicated ecosystem from worms and beetles on down to tiny, nearly-microscopic filaments of fungi and bacteria. As with anywhere on earth, a healthy ecosystem is essential for optimal growth and health.

In my backyard the soil is a heavy clay over a base of sand. It barely grows grass in some places. But, if you build it they will come... The raised bed that I put in last summer is nearly overflowing with worms, and centipedes are fairly common, too, much to my husband's chagrin. It started off life as a lasagna garden, with a base layer of cardboard boxes recycled after the move, a couple bags of dirt from the grocery store garden center, and some trench-compost piles. Now there's enough good dirt to grow short-ish carrots, and my herbs are taking off. The bed isn't very large because it takes a fair input of cash to start that way, with the boards and hardware to attach the corners. I used two un-treated cedar deck planks and cut them down to a rectangle.

Save some cash- grow your own raspberries

Raspberries are ridiculously expensive in stores, probably because they have to be hand-picked and are very delicate little fruit and they don't last very long after picking. But, raspberry canes are extremely productive, and with a little bit of care and attention you can provide yourself with these tasty, zingy treats for most of the summer. Any investment you make in buying canes will pay you back within a couple years. After that the rest is just gravy. Or something.

The kind you want to get are the 'everbearing' variety, which means that they'll fruit twice in one season. Yes, even in Canada. I also got a variety that also has fewer prickles on the canes. This is a good thing come picking time.

Asparagus season is coming...

I know this is a little early, but it's good to be prepared. In a couple weeks it will be time to plant your crowns (the root ball). Whatever you plant this year won't be able to be harvested, but in two years, however, you will be rewarded in early spring with a bonanza of tasty shoots. It's a longer-term investment in the beginning, but the plants are perennial and will live for 15-20 years.

One of the objections I've seen to planting asparagus is that it takes up too much room for a crop that only pops up in the early spring. The remedy to that is to interplant it with strawberries. They both have the same soil needs, and the asparagus won't interfere with the strawberries much, and vice versa. Problem solved.

Asparagus is an interesting plant in that it is either male or female. The technical term for that is dioecious. The male stalks are more productive and live longer, so if you are planting heirloom plants you'll need more than if you get a hybridized all-male variety, or weed out the female plants and put in more males in another year. If you have a smaller space to grow in it might be better in this instance to get a hybrid. One of the very few times I'll say that, actually...

How to plant it

Keep in mind that asparagus prefers full sun, but will tolerate a bit of shade, and they need a lighter, well-drained soil that warms up quickly in the spring. Since any standing water will rot the roots, raised beds are a perfect environment for them. The bed should be dug over with plenty of compost and manure to give the plants a good start.

More dyeing with weld

It looks like a kid scribbling a sun according to my daughter.

I think that I finally got this one down. Weld is so very easy to work with. It brings on a bright colour even with the high mineral content of the water from my tap. It's given me the confidence to try some of the other, more difficult colours...

And a very apropos colour for the spring solstice that just passed.

Onwards and upwards.

Nut crackers

Nut Crackers

• 2c nuts of your choice
• 1tsp of rosemary/thyme/sage
• 1Tbsp coconut oil
• 1/4tsp salt
• 1 egg