Spring and Gardening

Beautiful day in South Dakota.   I did some laundry and hung it outside, love that outdoor smell!

We made the garden area bigger, brought up more panels.  Several raspberry plants made the winter, and the 3 lilac trees are inside and protected from the deer, but not the rabbits.  You can tell how deep the snow was this winter…deep…by where the lilacs are eaten off.  However, they are finally showing some leaves.  The apricot tree is starting to bloom today, and I saw plums in some other shelterbelts with blossoms.   Maybe spring is coming!!

I bought some asparagus roots…a $2 special, 6 crowns, each with lots of very long roots, so today,  finished digging the trench, watered and got them put in the ground.  My lone asparagus plant from last year survived as well, even tho I had to move it in the middle of summer.  There are 4 or 5 raspberries plants sticking out of the ground.  The spinach I planted is coming up, and the onion sets are peeking.   I spaded up a short row by the fence and planted a half dozen old sprouted potatoes.  Also bought another Rhubarb plant, a Canada Red, so now have three.  That should be enough.  The ones I put out last year look good.  Roger’s horseradish is 6 inches tall or so.  We can dig and grind any day now.  And my tulips, or some of them opened up today!   I got some lettuce and peas in the ground this week. 

Need to get another compost pile started, and let the one in the middle of the garden finish cooking.  I can see as I turn it, that eggshells need to be crushed, and I have no idea if I am getting the right greens (high nitrogen) to browns (high carbon) mix right.  It is supposed to be 1 part to 4 parts.  But I will keep at it, see what I get.

Roger brought up 3 railroad ties, and we extended one raised bed, so he brought in a tractor scoopful of dirt today to fill it.  Couldn’t get the tractor all the way to it, so it required some scooping.  We needed some younger bodies and backs here to move that dirt around, but we got it done and pretty well leveled off.

When we enlarged the garden, it also encompassed one of the burr oaks I planted 2 years ago, and it looks like it is still alive and budding out.  I decided that by the time it gets big enough to be a problem, I won’t be gardening anymore anyway.  They should grow to 40-50 feet, so don’t know if I will get to see that or not.

Wahoo, let the growing season begin.

Spring in South Dakota

At the beginning of last week, my garden had over 3 feet of snow over the whole area.  At the end of the week, the raised beds have no snow, and the compost ring is free of snow as well. The snow on the ground around the beds will disappear soon, but the weather temp has dropped, and the wind is cold.
In other parts of South Dakota, it has snowed again in the northern part, and a little south, the water is running furiously.  Houses are sandbagged and roads are washing out. We got a little skiff of snow as well.  I hope to get to Sioux Falls, the Falls Park to watch the water running over the falls there when it warms up a little.  There will be a lot of water surging over the rocks.
At our house, central SD, the tiger lilies are out of the ground about 2 inches, and the tulips are about 6 inches high.  The lilacs are budding, hooray, they were protected from the deer this winter, inside the garden fence.  The rabbits played havoc, tho, since the snow was so high, they worked on a lot of lilac branches, so those ends will not be blooming.  We shall see.  We need a dog to keep the rabbits at bay, our many cats do not seem to bother the rabbits!

February in South Dakota

Spring??  Yesterday my friend saw a robin on her lawn.   Robins are our first sign of spring.  However, considering today is the middle of February, spring seems unlikely. We are still walking thru snowbanks. Then I came home and went out to fill the bird feeders, which were completely empty.  Some of the snow next to the house, east side, is gone, and lo and behold, little sprigs of tiger lilies are pushing up green.  Go back, robins, it is too early!!  And lilies, you may lose your tips. Most of the bed is under snow yet. 
These two notifications made me curious enough to go look at the lilacs.  They have buds, but they don't look like they are anxious.  Alas, I can see the rabbits have been tasting lilacs this winter.  The fence protects the lilacs from the deer, but not rabbits.  The weather man is promising us snow and low temps over this weekend, so Mother Nature better put the skids on!!