Spring At Heart's Ease Cottage

Spring came in February this year, now it has decided to be Winter in late April. We have had temps dipping into the low 30's, which doesn't do much for my warm weather crops like tomatoes. I never plant tomatoes before May 1, even though our last frost date is April 15, because I don't trust the weather to do what it is supposed to do. Unfortunately I had  tomatoes that I had started indoors out for the day to start hardening them off and I forgot about them. The temperature over night dropped to 31 degrees. When I remembered them in the morning I went outside to find my poor little baby tomatoes had withered with the cold..sigh. I just have too many things going on at one time these days... I will start new tomatoes from seed for my specialty tomatoes, but I will have to go ahead and by some flats of Romas so my canning tomatoes can go in the ground May 1.
The gardens this Spring have been beautiful and as I write this my rose arbor is bursting forth with hundreds of pale pink blossoms. I will take some photos tomorrow, when it stops raining. For now, here are some photos of what Spring has been like here at the Cottage:

 The azalea bushes in front of my house were spectacular this Spring! These bushes are about 20 years old. Last year we planted 90 more azaleas in what used to be the front yard.

We now call  it the "Bird Garden", since the birds have come by the droves to hang out in the bushes. The new bushes haven't bloomed yet since they are a later variety, but I will be sure to post some pics when they bloom.

This little bunny fountain is playing flower pot this year while I rework the garden it usually resides in.

I try to plant some Heart's Ease every year, as a nod to our beloved Cottage. The weather here turns warm so early in the year that they quickly go to seed, but I enjoy every minute of the time they are with us.

Da spent a lot of the late summer last year reclaiming the blackberry trellis' that turned into a thicket of unruly brambles while we were living in Costa Rica. All his hard work paid off this Spring. The canes are absolutely covered with blossoms and newly set berries.

The thumb-sized sweet berries will come ripe in July, and will be eaten with home made granola for breakfast, will accompany other seasonal fruits in smoothies, and will be made into some mouthwatering  cobblers. We will freeze some, make some into jam and best of all we will get to share them with neighbors and friends.

                    Friskie enjoys a walk through the iris beds with me.

                    This Iris smells like lemon Chiffon Pie!

                              Granny Smith Apple blossoms.

    Our resident Anole spends the afternoon napping on the deck rail. 

   Here he is showing off his colors for any sweet young thing that might be watching...

Patrick's Rose, better known as David Austen's "Graham Thomas", has bloomed a month early. The early Spring weather convinced everything in my yard to bloom way before its time.

This rose was damaged in a wind storm last year and I thought it was going to die... It came back with determination and has graced the deck with its citrus scented blooms since late March.

   Black Seeded Simpson, Lolla Rosa, Mesclun mix and Romaine lettuces, will be in the salad bowl this Spring, along with beet greens, new onions and Cherry Belle Radishes. In the bed to the left of the lettuce, Jersey Wakefield Cabbages and Cherry Belle Radishes grow as companions. The radishes will be ready for harvest before the cabbages get large enough to compete for the sunshine.

Lolla Rosa is a compact curly leaved lettuce that is cut and come again, I have harvested most of this bed twice and I will still be able to cut it once or twice more before I need to replant with a warm weather variety.

At the time of this photo the romaine still had a few weeks before it was mature. As of this week it will be ready for harvest.
Well, I'd better draw this post to a close, but before I do I will give you a sneak peek of my newest garden project... My newly renovated kitchen herb garden.

My established herb garden was overcome by couching grass and some insidious form of weed that looks like Artemesia but with a very aggressive nature. So I have finally dug out all the weeds, sifted the soil and am now I am replanting my surviving herbs, as well as adding many new ones. I will post more on the herb garden another day.

                  May you all be blessed with a simple life!

It Is Spring After All

Misty morning at a nearby pasture.

  I have many things that I want to write about, the last part of my pantry keeping post, tips on how to get the most out of your grocery money, but today I just want to talk about how beautiful it is outside. This morning it was frosty and cold,  a mist rose from the grass when the sun hit it and the birds sprang to song as the morning light hit the trees. As I stood outside with the dog, he sniffed at the air, seemingly as distracted by the the awakening world as I was. It was going to be a lovely day.

  Today is Wednesday, so I have the house to myself. My son is at work, and my husband works in the office on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Since I was on my own a took the opportunity to do some things I don't often get to when others are home. I worked on my blog, prepared letters for mailing, and walked around the yard with my camera to catch the garden in it's p.j.'s. The tender leafed veggies always look their crispy best before the sun is warm and strong, so I strolled out and caught the pale early morning sunlight as it streamed through the espaliered fruit trees and struck the tips of the Russian red mustard.

I then made my way around the garden taking pictures of the progress of the  veggies we planted in the fall. Normally, we plant in August/ September for a November/ December harvest and let some of the beds rest the last of the deep cold is gone, the remaining beds will be tucked in with hoop houses and planted with veggies that don't mind some cold. This year, winter arrived early and we never got a fall harvest. The temps. stayed cold enough that the vegetables all decided to hunker down for the winter and waited for the warmer weather of early Spring to arrive before putting on growth. Now we have cabbages heading up, red mustard furling their large deeply crinkled leaves, and fava beans putting on masses of purple and white blossoms. The garlic is looking good with thick sturdy stems and the red and green romaine is ready to go to the salad bowl.

Jersey Wakefield Cabbages begin to head up.

Fava bean flowers

  Once the sun was up and the chill burned out of the air, I stood barefoot at the potting table and planted seeds for some of our warm weather vegetables. The cat came to see what she could help with and had to be dismissed when she almost pushed a watering can full diluted fish emulsion off the deck rail. She went off in a huff to sulk under the rose arbor, her tail twitching to show her displeasure. Today I started yellow pear tomatoes, artichokes, spinach and bell peppers. I fed the flats of Neon and Bright Lights swiss chard, and Detroit Beets. They are ready to go in the ground when I get a few minutes to pop them in. The breeze is blowing and the air is just cool enough to be refreshing. It reminds me of mornings on our mountain in Costa Rica.
   Several projects will demand my attention tomorrow, but for today I am going to enjoy a day without rain and play outside. Tomorrow it is back to work, it is spring after all and there is much to be done!