Busy day in the garden

Yesterday was gorgeous – sunny, warm. I know it’s going to frost again – it snowed less than two weeks ago, after all – but it is firmly spring in central Pennsylvania. I spent the day outside cleaning up the yard and getting ready for summer. I love gardening this time of year. Not only are things finally growing after the long winter, but they’ve not yet really gotten going, so I can maintain the delusion that I will keep ahead of everything.

I did all kinds of unglamorous tasks. I mowed for the first time this year, and cleaned the gutters. (Yes, that should have been done in the fall.) I did a bit of pruning.

And I finally settled on a site for the garden, and installed what may be the world’s smallest pea patch.

Tiny, yes, but double-dug – the best way to establish a new garden if you’re doing it by hand. Take off the sod in the first shovel-width row and set it aside. Dig down another shovel-depth and set the dirt aside. When you start the second shovel-width row, put the sod face-down in the bottom of the first trench. Cover the sod you put in the first row with the dirt from the bottom layer of the second row. Continue until you run out of steam, and put the sod and dirt from the first row into the last one. If you do it this way, your bed is deep enough for most veggies, and the sod is buried under 6 inches of dirt. My new bed is only 3 shovel-widths, and about 4 feet long, but it was the final installment after 6 hours of yard work. I’ll be adding more as it gets warm enough to plant other things.

I planted peas and lettuce. I may need to just leave the dog in the yard permanently to keep the rabbits out, though more likely I’d come out to find the dog curled up sleeping with a very full bunny. After that I wandered around for a few minutes with the new camera.

I found the first tulip.

The forsythia is in full swing.

The redbuds are just thinking about blooming.

And the blackberries are getting their first leaves. They’ve been in for two years; this should be a good year for berries.