Wednesday What's Growing On?

Well here we are starting into May and my garden is looking very green.  This week we had our typical spring showers one day followed by sunshine the next and my plants love that.  Everything is growing like crazy and you know what that means..... time to clean up! 

Once an over grown path, now a big burn pile

My yard has all kind of nooks and crannys and I've tried to make each one into a garden of sorts.  In the side yard behind the burn pile we have a couple large native beds with paths running around each one.  It's been about 2 years since I did any pruning in that area and I was starting to lose the paths.  No worries though.  This week I grabbed the pruners, donned a long sleeve shirt and got to it!  I cut back the native Saalal that had crept into the pathway. With a the path reclaimed, it was time to head into the beds and pulled out the native ground gowing blackberries that are always trying to take over.  They seem to grow about 2' per month in the spring! 

It's a dog's life :0)

With Ben's recent purchase of a push reel mower, I decided mowing our lawn wasn't so bad.  I had always had trouble starting the gas powered mower and hated the noise and fumes.  This new people powered mower was great to use.  It was quick, quiet and easy!  And Echo really appreciated a freshly mowed lawn!

Rhubarb ready for harvest

While I was in the backyard I noticed my crazy rhubarb was ready for a pruning too.  I don't know why I ever planted this in my flower bed, but it's going to have to stay there until fall transplanting time. I decided to cut it all back and see if I can find a good recipe to use it in today.  Rhubarb is my favorite plant in the earliest part of spring because I can see the growth every day.  Now that I've got other plants growing in around it I'll spend the rest of the summer battling to keep it harvested.  It's such a great producer!

Great germination rate for my own saved seeds!

Not too much work going on in my veggie patch this week.  I've already planted all my available beds and am just waiting for things to grow in.  As soon as the weather stays dry, Ben will be building me some more raised beds for my tomatos and other warm weather plantings.  I did notice a lot of sprouting action on my Romaine planting from a couple weeks ago.  That's extra exciting to me because these are seeds I saved from my garden last year. 

Such a sweet smelling flower

Everything else is growing in nicely in the vegetable garden.  Ben has decided to be a gardener too this year and has taken over on the potatoes so that's one less chore for me.  He also decided to have his own bed for planting utilizing the square foot gardening technique.  So far he's added some garlic sets.  I'm excited to see what else he'll be planting in his bed throughout the spring and early summer.

I do have a few pretties in bloom now.  In the rock garden the sweet woodruff is in full bloom.  It's so pretty with it's delicate white flowers blanketing the bank.  In the evenings this tiny flower sends out a huge fragrance too!

Lovely lilacs in white

Speaking of pretty flowers, the dahlia planting has been put on hold for another week.  We've done most of the work of making planting beds and adding ammended soil already.  Now we are just waiting on a run of dry weather.  They'll need to get in the ground soon, but we don't want the soil to be too soggy when we put the tubers in the ground.  The general rule of thumb is to plant them when your lilacs are in bloom, but we'll be fudging that by a couple of weeks just to be sure the soil is in the best condition.

So that's what's been growing on in my gardens this week.  How is your yard looking?  Anything new in bloom?