It's Wednesday, let's see what's growing on!

Don't be mistaken, Living Green in a Colorful World is not a "gardening blog"  but spring has me buzzing the organic garden like one of the newly awakened bees I see exploring the yard.  So I'll try to limit garden posts to my Wednesday, What's Growing On posts, with an occasional extra post if we've done something really exciting in the garden. 

That said, here's what I have to report from the veggie patch for this week:

Ben and I finally came to an agreement on the placement for the new boat garden.  We placed it with bow up against a large boulder and to the left of where Ben and Echo are standing I moved some earth to create a terrace step down to the already established part of the garden.  Ben brought home several yards of soil mix already and he used some to fill this boat planter.  The boat will be home to our Roma tomatoes in June, but for now I've planted some Walla Wallas along where the boat benches are and I'll throw in some lettuce and radishes that should be ready for harvest just in time to make room for those tomato starts.

On the other side of the boat where I made the terraced steps, I stacked up some of the soil along the bow.  Then I transplanted some garden herbs (mint, oregano and lemon balm) in there.  I then stacked rocks over the top of the soil mound to prevent erosion.  Today I noticed that the herbs are starting to pop out from the cracks between the rocks.  Just as I'd hoped!

Did I mention my new outdoor sink for washing veggies?  Well it still needs to get cleaned up and the water will have to get hooked up later (we'll be using a reclaimed water system of some kind), but the sink framing was built by Ben and custom sized for me!  Yay!  Finally a shorty sink for a 5' 3" me! This is a 100% green project right here.  The sink is reclaimed from the trash heap and the water used for washing will be recycled into the garden as irrigation.  Along with that, the compost pile is right nearby, so prepping my veggies will be a breeze and it will keep dirt out of the kitchen pipes and the home septic system!  The added bonus, I have a kick ass view of the Hales Passage to enjoy while doing my garden chores.  Island life rocks!

One of the joys of the garden is the interaction with the local fauna.  I was excited to snap some photos of this pileated woodpecker that came for a visit.  These large and strange birds often hop about our backyard from tree to tree searching for grubs and insects to eat.  They even eat from our suet feeders which I fill with my own homemade suet treats that include local and native bird foods such as berries and rose hips.  They tend to be pretty camera shy and quick to startle, so I feel lucky to have snapped these shots even if they are a little on the blurry side.  In the background, you'll note our fern fronds are just coming open.