Springing to Life

The weather has held fairly well lately and all the plants are just blooming and growing like crazy.  We've had a lot of rain too so that has boosted growth.  I was able to get one spraying in on the fruit trees but not again since all the rain.  Will hopefully get to spray again this weekend since there isn't supposed to be more rain for at least a week or more.  The plum tree is loaded with fruit as is the nectarine and peach trees. We have never been able to harvest any plums since I always forget to spray on time and the bugs always win.  Looking good so far this year.

Broccoli

The broccoli grew overnight with all the rain and I just harvested our first head tonight.  It was pretty decent in size.  About double or triple what it was in this picture barely over a week ago. We are currently harvesting about 3 quarts of strawberries a day and the asparagus continues to produce.  I have got to get canning.  Gotta get strawberry jam and strawberry rhubarb jam and hopefully, pie filling put up.

Strawberries and Asparagus

The chickens are laying fairly well and I think I have a hen that just went broody.  She is sitting on some eggs and seems to be serious this time.  Maybe we'll have some little fuzzy chick butts in about 21 days from now, time will tell.  The bantams, Claudette and Josephine, are adapting fairly well.  They are so cute!!  I was hoping they might want to sit some eggs for me so time will tell there.  Neither of my main broody hens has shown any interest yet in sitting.  I have a Black Copper Marans and Buff Orpington that regularly sit eggs for me but not so sure this season.  Again, time will tell.

Our sweet outdoor kitty, Katerina, likes to hang with us when we are out working or playing and when we were working on some projects last weekend she gladly helped guard the yard cart.  We finally dug the maple saplings up and got the ones transplanted on the property line that we had planned on last year.  It's nice to have them in, now if they will just survive.  We should have planted them much earlier so we shall see.

Guard kitty

Maple saplings

The clematis is really going crazy and the Peonies are just gorgeous.  Were just gorgeous.  They just don't last very long and this last rain has already taken them out.  So glad the clematis blooms all season long.  Now if I can just learn how to propagate it and have success.  Hopefully future updates on that.

Clematis

The peonies smell so good!

There's still so much more to do but isn't there always.  There's always another project to do around here.  Still so much garden work and upgrades to chicken and duck areas.  The front walk remains a huge project undone.  Hopefully, we can begin to tackle it again this weekend.  Happy planting to you!