80 degrees in March

And the garden gets closer and closer to being ready....

First Sunburn of 2012: St Patrick's Day.

It certainly has been an unusual end of winter/early Spring.  I got my first sunburn today while working in the yard.  There are peepers and toads singing their night songs outside my open window.  I have a mosquito bite on my arm.

I'm hoping to have the veggie garden ready for planting by the end of the month.  We had some gravel delivered today, and have started laying down cardboard on the paths that lack stone/brick/pavers.  Over the cardboard we'll lay landscaping cloth, then gravel atop that for what I hope will be a nice dry, weed-free path between the beds. 

The General was being coy today.  We found his lady Jane's nest of eggs under the front porch.

Ducks at dusk!

Loveliness abounds this time of year.

 

Bashful daffodils are in bloom everywhere.

We found several praying mantis egg sacs clinging to sumac saplings... I came very close to destroying three of them while clearing brush from the hillside above the pond! 

I'm fighting a cold (again!), but I feel like fresh air and a healthy dose of dirt up my nose and under my fingernails has to be good for me.  I can't wait to get out there to continue our work tomorrow.

Loving it!

This warm weather is intoxicating.  After a 6:30 staff meeting and a 7:30 cardiology appointment, I came home and spent several beautiful hours outside continuing to build the vegetable garden.

I started seeds this weekend in the greenhouse too.  Our summer veggies will be:

-Black Sea Man tomatoes
-Roma tomatoes
-Reisentraub cherry tomatoes (hanging baskets in the greenhouse)
-Napoleon sweet peppers 
-Sigaretta di Bergamo peppers (hanging basket)
-Red mini bell peppers (hanging basket)
-Sahuaro hot peppers
-Cayenne peppers
-Brussels sprouts
-Yukon Gold potatoes
-Table Dainty squash (hanging basket)
-Beit Alpha cucumbers (hanging basket)

The ducks have started laying eggs again... and I have to say, they're not getting the whole nesting thing.  They've laid some of the eggs in the water of the pond, and others on the stone path.

I'm hoping they'll get the hang of it eventually.

Hello March!

Things are blooming!

The veggie garden is coming along....

...and this lovely stone retaining wall is coming along nicely too, thanks to Hubbybunch. 

 We're running out of bricks and pavers for the paths, so we're thiking we'll get a big load of gravel delivered and fill in the paths with that after all of the raised beds are finished.

This one is just about ready for planting!  Hurray!

This little area between the garden and greenhouse was a concrete foundation for some sort of outbuilding at some point.  The previous owners had been using it for a compost pile, and it was boarded in on two sides by rotting wooden boards.  We demolished that, and have distant plans for an outdoor clawfoot bathtub/shower set up right there...

Peas are poking up!

Bowie is not impressed.

This little triangle of lawn between the stone wall and paddock will hopefully be transformed into a rock garden this summer.

There's still much to be done, but it's nice to feel like we made some progress this weekend!