The wrens feeding their babies.

 Tango celery fresh from the garden.  Delicious.

The first Salad Bush cukes of the season were picked a few days ago.  The three plants are really taking off.  I'll be swimming in cukes soon.

 First tomatoes of the season are forming.  Sun Golds.

 Lincoln shelling peas.  Delicious.  Unfortunately the 15+ degrees over average temps we have been having for weeks have shut down the blossoms.  Hopefully the cool temps predicted for the next week will get them going again.  The foliage is still in great shape.

 Salad Bush cucumbers are starting to blossom.

Copra onions are a bit battered from last nights heavy rain storm, but they are developing nicely.

After a quick trip to the A. C. Moore craft store for some drawstring tulle bags, tomato bagging has commenced.  These are the 5 x 6/5" bags.  Not too big, not too small.  They have printable coupons, so I got these at 40% off.  So $3 for 18 bags.  I didn't think of it at the time, but the store also had a large size bag.  I was thinking those might be perfect to protect my grapes from the birds.  Last year the birds ate every last grape in the course of one night.  Not this year!

My Prairiefire Crabapple tree is in full bloom. The other night we reached 27 degrees with a Real Feel of 19. I was worried about the blossoms that were waiting to open. They must be tougher than I thought. What gorgeous pink blossoms against burgundy and green foliage. I love this tree.
Last year I cut back the laterals on my blackberry bushes. Tossed them in a pile to be taken up to back to decompose. After an hour I thought, why don't I try to plant some and see what happens. So I decided to take 1 foot cuttings and cram them upright into a container of soil. I tossed some plastic wrap over the top to keep the humidity up a bit since it was still quite hot and dry outside. I gave them a quick drink of water and ignored them. Darned if those cuttings didn't survive over the winter unprotected. Just sitting in this container out front. Wow. Blackberries are tough. The cuttings are putting out new growth. A friend of mine is now the proud owner of a few blackberry plants. Plant propagation is cool.
My Copra onions from Dixondale Farms arrived this weekend! This variety (along with Red Zeppelin) did very well for me last season. I still have some in the fridge from last season! This year I gave them approximately 4 inches of space rather than just the 3 I usually give. Curious to see if there is a significant difference.
They were just planted this morning. Above them are some Scarlet Nantes carrots that have germinated (too small to see in the photo). I direct sowed some a couple of weeks ago and tossed down a few more seeds to fill in some bare spots while I was working on the onions. I direct sowed some more Jericho lettuce in one of the raised beds as well.

Potato Planting

It's time for potatoes! Well, in containers anyway. Tonight there is a freeze warning. They are calling for temperatures around 27 with a Real Feel of 19!. Yikes. We haven't seen weather like that in a while. No worries. The potatoes can easily be protected on my porch for the night. The first step was to thoroughly moisten some peat moss. The peat is important for keeping the pH low enough to prevent scab on the future potatoes. I dumped peat in one of the large containers and poured tons of water on it. You have to keep stirring and mixing it. The peat is very hydrophobic at first. It takes a while for it to start to accept the water. Just keep mixing....and mixing....and mixing.
Once the peat was thoroughly moistened, I filled each large container 1/4 of the way with the peat. It's pretty moist (as you can see), but then I filled the containers to the half way mark with potting soil and left over top soil. Mixed it well, and in went the potatoes. In this case I planted Kennebec potatoes that I found a Walmart yesterday. One large seed potato went in each container. Each had about 4-5 eyes that were already sprouting. I pointed those points upward and gently covered with the soil. Once the plants reach up over the rim, I will fill up the rest of the container with soil. Boy it feels good to get my hands all dirty!