Wednesday, April 7, 2010

After Spring Break, the fruits of our labors

It's almost like a rerun, we start the spring again with seedlings, sprouts, and preparing the garden beds. It's so nice to have green around again, and the mountains are just beginning to have that bright spring green hue as the trees bud out. We started tomato, okra, lettuce, basil, oregano, and eggplant seeds a few weeks ago.

We got help from our friend Jan the Master Gardener to prune the peach tree. We only put it in last year, but it is flowering beautifully already and we hope to see some fruit for preserves or pie.
The bees are doing their job. Matt found a book and all the equipment for homebeekeeping. We haven't committed to anything yet, and I want him to try to apprentice with Pelham Thomas of the berry farm before trying anything out here at the Kirby CrapShack.
The asparagus is coming back, and this year we can harvest! Here is a little sprout making it's way to the surface.
And finally, an overview of the spring garden. We added 4 more trellises for vertical growing because we have plans for both orange and white pumpkins, moon and stars watermelon, Black Krim, Opalka, Brandywine, and grape tomatoes, slicing and pickling cucumber, and sugar snap and shelling peas. This weekend was spent securing the new trellis netting and making new electrical tubing frames.
Strawberry bushes are also coming back strong, and today was the first day to mow the yard. Our friend Daryl come over this weekend and we've made our plans for the deck. This week we'll get the building permit, and start buying the lumber to begin work the first part of May! We'll take plenty of before, during, and after pictures as we're going to be learning as we go. This weekend we are headed to Kentucky or West Virginia to visit some mountaintop removal sites and the activists who protest against the practice. It should be an interesting experience, and we're going to camp out with students and the environmental ethics professor from WCU. Photos to come from our many adventures!

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