The Garden Awakes!

After a bitterly cold winter with far above average snows, Northwest Arkansas is getting a taste of a traditional spring. We had several warm days that saw 70 degrees and sun. We have had several VERY rainy days complete with thunderstorms and hail. Cloudy, mild days into the 50s feel like normal. It's enough to warm the hearts of gardeners and the soils of their gardens. Seed orders are coming in and we are already procrastinating on the indoor seeding. I took a walk around the garden and realized that it has awoken, despite the hard winter.

Garden looks pretty boring here...depressing even. Notice the newer beds on the outer edges. These additions add 176 sq ft of raised beds, bringing the total close to 400 sq ft.

Garlic is up and ready for warm days. As opposed to last year, I got these in the ground in the late fall rather than waiting until the spring. That is the way it is supposed to be done evidently. These overwinter just fine. I have a challenge among a few friends for the best garlic to be pulled on July 4th.

Parsley overwintered just fine and is starting new growth. Curly leaf parsley on the left, flat leaf (Italian) parsley on the right. You can't see it but behind the parsley the chives are pushing up mounds of soil in their effort to break through.

This bed is the permanent strawberry bed. It was started last year with just one row up front of everbearing plants. The rest of the box was filled in the late fall with first year transplants from our friend's borrowed box in our garden and his pots. We needed to dump a lot of new compost in his bed and I feared the small pots would not protect the plants during the winter. The potted strawberries also had many runners that had rooted into the rest of the box. The whole thing was a mess....the friend hadn't visited his plot in months. So his have now filled the back of the bed. Some were everbearing and some June. Kyle added 3 or 4 inches of compost right on top of the plants and the existing mulch.....I feared that this would hurt the strawberries, but I think it actually provided great insulation. He was careful to make sure he gathered the plant leaves up and spread the compost all around them. I imagine as perennial plants with quick rooting, the strawberries will just gradually raise their root level and thrive. Let's hope.

Brand new growth of strawberries. They are ready for spring!

Mint. This is a 2x5 raised bed that is completely segregated from the rest of the garden. Mint can be very invasive, so we planted it away...in the shade...and we kind of ignored it as it is just far enough out of sight and hard to reach with the hose. It didn't do very well at all last year, but we sort of don't mind. We dumped 3 or 4 inches of compost on top and just let it sit during the winter. All kinds of new growth...but we may have killed one or two of the varieties planted in this box. We will see.

Is anything waking up in your garden/farm?