Readiness activities

It has been a beautiful weekend. The thermometer reads 76°. I opened the windows to get rid of the lingering smell of yesterday’s red-wine-braised brisket. It smelled good when it was cooking, but enough is enough.

Terry got the tractor out yesterday to rototill the garden. The soil was perfect, he said. 

Terry rototills the garden

Today he and I planted 75 asparagus plants in a patch of soil where he used to have lilacs and Nanking cherries. He dug up and moved the lilacs last week. The Nanking cherries just got torn out. We don’t have the right site for them. He tilled the soil with the tractor, and today we were ready to plant. In a bold move, I put away my winter boots and got out my gardening boots. I put on my gardening pants and got my knees dirty for the first time this season. 

It will be nice to have more asparagus. Our pilot study that we planted a few years ago is completely inadequate. We have to harvest for a whole week before we have enough for one meal for two. It takes several years for the asparagus to get going. In the first year, you can only harvest for one week. The rest of the growth has to go to the roots. Next year, we can harvest for two weeks, and so forth. In several years, we will be able to harvest for the asparagus’ whole growing season.

The girls are so happy to be out and about. They come a-runnin’ every time anyone walks by the fence, ever hopeful that treats are forthcoming. If no treats are forthcoming, they don’t hold it against you. They just go back to scratching in the dirt, pecking at sticks, lounging in the sun, or rolling in the dust. One never knows where one will find something wonderful.

The girls come to the fence to see if treats are coming. Ingrid is particularly excited!

Hilda has been busy in the greenhouse. I made sure to get some pictures of her. Not to sound morbid or anything, but that is how I would like to remember her when she’s gone. She loves to work in the greenhouse.

Hilda pots up a cabbage plant

Onion (back) and fennel (front) seedlings

Brussels sprouts babies

I walked out to where we seeded the prairie last fall. The standing water has come and gone twice now since the snowmelt. I had to squat down to see tiny cotelydons coming through the soil. I’d like to think they are sprouting from the tiny seeds we scattered. Chances are they are just weeds. The seed catalog said on every page that it takes three years to really see the prairie develop. I must be patient. Think of how much asparagus I’ll have by then!