April 25: Wonderful long day in the garden, finally!

This spider-like thing is an asparagus crown.  Last fall we dug up the asparagus patch because of the perennial weed problem.  Today Bill refilled it with a truckload of beautiful black soil.  I dug the 4 asparagus crowns I had healed into bed 12 last fall and got the three I had put in the refrigerator last fall (they were moldy...not sure if they'll grow?) Actually not sure any will grow.  But I thought it worth a try.  So we have 7 crowns planted and now need to buy some others to finish planting the new asparagus bed.  But won't be eating asparagus for 3 years! In the picture below, the dark rectangle of soil is where I put in the crowns and watered them.  But the bed of new soil is much larger and will be divided into two 3 1/2 foot beds with a 2" path in the middle.    In the foreground, you can see that the rhubarb is doing really well!

 Bill and Joe cleaned up the weed pile area on the southwest corner of the garden--Joe with the tractor and bill with the rake.  Looks so great!  And will be a perfect place to have a pile of woodchips for re-chipping the pathways.

Then Joe scooped out the enclosed weed bin so we are ready for all the new weeds which we will inevitably be pulling throughout the summer!

Last week Bill planted the onions (4/17) in beds 5 and 6.  Instead of onion sets this year, Amy bought onion plants for us....a new adventure in onion growing!  Garlic in bed 7 is also doing great.

And the first peas that had been planted March 18 are finally up.  Soil today is 50 degrees F.

Greatly enlarged in this photos, the lettuce from both March 11 and 18 is up!

And some self-seeded dill coming up in the herb bed.

Raspberries are leafing out beautifully, both the ones Bill left up as canes on the east side of the patch,

 and the ones he cut to the ground on the west side.

The compost bins that eagle Scout Des Athy built a few years ago are filled with

1. composting manure

2. compost from last summer, with some extra soil from the truckload of soil on top.

3. Garden "stuff)--buckets, composter, pots, etc.   Every garden needs a place to keep "stuff."

Got the hoses from their winter storage in the "Ritz" and lacking new rubber gaskets, got myself soaked watering the garden and unfortunately, also myself.  In a brisk 50 degree F wind, that was chilly!