Is it really spring?

The weather has been wonderful! Sunny and warm, peepers peeping, trees are starting to turn green, the grass is growing; it must be spring! Of course it can't last: we are in for temps back into the 30's over the weekend. The daffodils are blooming, finally, and I've announced that the girls can pick as many as they like. Last year, I only let them pick a few, thinking it would be nice to enjoy them in the yard for a while. But we got a cold snap that killed them all, so no one got to enjoy them, inside or out. I won't make that mistake again this year. Besides, there's just nothing sweeter than Little Sis singing to herself as she picks flowers. :)

I've been very very very (well, just picture a LOT of verys here and you get the idea) busy. I've started digging up garden beds and putting out the seeds that can go out before the last frost.

This year's plan is to have something edible, for us or the critters, growing in every available spot. It sounds like a great idea, especially since I won't have to mow this year (I loathe mowing), but it really does entail a lot of work to get things started. Some of the beds will be no trouble to get started; I had black plastic down in several places to kill the grass. I have discovered one secret: carpet works best! An old throw rug or piece of carpet placed where you'd like to have a new garden spot works wonders. The rain can seep right through, but the weeds all die from lack of light, then the worms come up to munch on the decaying vegetation, and voila, you have some excellent garden soil. I think the places that I don't actually get dug up to plant will get a layer of carpet for next year.

Thanks to all the digging and outside work, I've been too tired to blog. I'm fortunate, though, to have two great helpers. Big Sis prefers housework (though she will haul firewood without complaining) and Little Sis loves to garden. That works out well, since Big Sis can help me keep up with the housework and Little Sis has the perfect sized hands to plant tiny seeds.

I bought seed potatoes today. This will be our fist time growing potatoes. We eat a lot of them, so the work will be worthwhile. I bought 20 lbs. at a local greenhouse. They had a much better price than Walmart or TSC, where seed potatoes are at least $1a pound. I suppose my rainy cold weekend will be spent cutting up seed potatoes and getting them ready to plant.

The guy at the greenhouse told me there's a new way to plant potatoes. He said you cut them up, then wrap them in tissue, like Kleenex, before you plant them. I asked if that helped keep them from rotting in the ground, and he said no, but it keeps the dirt out of their eyes. ;)