Hooray May!

May flowers are sort of popping up today on the 7th, lol. Mostly still the daffs any grape hyacinths, but the fruit trees are budding up right fine. Cept the plum tree, that probably has another 2-3 growing seasons before it starts showing flowers.

It was a tinkery kind of day. Puttering around feeling like I'm getting nothing done. Made a big ass batch of hummingbird nectar this morning since a hummer decided to show up and announce they are here. Refilled all the feeders- jeez I really got a bunch of them all over the place now. Good thing the birds don't really get super fed year round, lol. And I can already tell that the local bug sources must be up since the suet feeders are not being ravaged so hard anymore. The last of the grackles are almost gone. The first orchard oriole made an appearance too today. And the white egret has been back on the pond past few days.

Made a batch of chicken bacon ranch pasta salad for lunching on over the next couple days. I just use the cheap store brand of bacon ranch pasta salad mix and spruce it up with seared chicken, peas, some celery and a handful of the ranch seasoning mix I make. A splash of liquid smoke at the end of the chicken sear in bacon grease to give some extra oomph. A handful of minced wild chives for oniony goodness.
Boiled up the last of the medium eggs to make into egg salad tomorrow. Which reminded me to make sandwich bread, today it's a wheat bread.

Got the last of my tomato seedlings repotted. So far all the other tomato and pepper repots are looking wonderful! Cept one little pepper that I thought might not make it anyway. The current tally is:
10 pepperonchini
3 manzano pepper
6 tobolsk tomatoes
5 roughwood golden plum tomatoes
5 jaune flamme tomatoes
8 woodle orange tomatoes

All these guys are going to go into the bed I created yesterday. Looks like I will be needing to pick up a few more tomato cages! I could have pinched them off in pot, then I would have had 4 pepperonchini, 2 manzano, and 3 each of the tomatoes. I'm pretty pleased that I decided to let them go and repot them instead. Extra not sorry that 2 kinds of tomatoes at 3 pots each didn't sprout at all. If all the plants survive into the garden well, 24 tomatoes and 13 peppers is more than enough for one year! But if they are all a go.. Ohhhhh for canning orange tomatoes and a lot of pepperonchini this year!

Decided today to move all 3 flats of beans and curbits to the mini-greenhouses. They are just starting to crack up and I want to jump that shit up. I'm using a lot of tail seed in those pots and now's the frigging time to know if they work or not. And now that I realize just now many nightshades I got going on, extra glad I made a large bed and only pre-started the Taylor Bush beans. Still might make up a second smaller lasagne bed for maisi though- the whole family really likes green beans.

I really need to tear up the next tulip border chunk ASAP. They are all blooming nicely in their pots, so the time is now to get that area done up and the tulips in. And a few of the parsley cups are finally sprouting! So hopefully by the time the tulips start dying back, those will be ready to plug into the bed.
Also need to get on it and plant the 5 second year lavenders under the front cedar, and plant in that pot of shade loving ground cover in the FOH garden. The ground cover is actually starting to stretch!

The chive spot in the yard has grown back in so much I decided to take another cutting of them today. Only ended up with about half as much as I did from the second cutting, so maybe a half pound or so today. I think this might be about it for spring wild chive season. But still, I think I picked a nice couple pounds of the stuff, and preserved them in a bunch of ways as well as having a lot fresh in the eating lately. Considering the price for the stuff at the market, I feel like I got the superdeal of the season in chives, lol. Especially since this isn't a cultivated bed I had to spend money setting up- it's just a spot in the yard I keep letting grow in of wild eats. I tend to mow high and less frequently than most folks, so this gives plenty of growing action for them.

I have to say I was rather pleased the other day when Chris dropped by. She complemented me on how much work I've been putting in, and how much it shows! And how much it means to her remembering seasons of yesteryear when the property was full of blooms under grandmas care. She noted that grandmas poppy was coming up right fine- we are both hoping for some decent blooms this year and hopefully a little seed :) She also offered me some peachy irises- I think those will possibly be worked into the blue bed.

Hooee it was summer today! It's the 8th :) Forecast said break into the 80's, and we hit 92 today! Super sunny and clear. A bit too sunny and warm for me to do much in the yard- I'm not used to this yet, lol.
I puttered a bit in the pole barn, trying to figure out how I'm gonna make trellising for all those tomatoes and peppers. Helped Chris move the horse fence to the sanctuary and get the horses a grazing. I feel a little like a movie- all the birdies at the feeders, the horses grazing peacefully on the other side of the easement drive.. warm breezes wafting in from all the windows.
I get to see that whole section get prepped up for me with all horse-power, lol. Sometimes it can be a good thing to cut back or burn back some areas. I'd rather this than burning by a long shot. And it should leave the area fairly open for my seedlings.
I think perhaps putting those flats into the mini-greenhouse yesterday was a great idea- I'm already showing some serious accelerated seed popping.
And looking in on that greenhouse I discovered a tiny little toad hanging out and enjoying the hot damp amongst my lowest flat- a bunch of different random flowers. It wasn't squishing the seedlings none, and must have been pleased as punch in that warm damp environment. 

While out with Cris today setting up the temporary fence, I learned another piece of house history relating to the plants. The rose on the fence I decided to try to groom and save for it's promising looking hips turns out to be some crazy 150 year old planting of some sort. Like cutting from an original and planted in way back early. Makes me pleased that I decided to try grooming it back in instead of whacking it down. 

In some thinking about future garden and yard plans.. I'm really getting a bug up my ass to start clearing out the pond area for a small dock. I know, I have been talking about this ever since I started the blog. But now I'm starting to research dredging how to- without all the power stuff. At one time we cleared little patches like this by hand quite well and we can't afford a lot of the power stuff. I think a pair of chestwaders would be rather nice for this- not because I think I would sink more than knee deep, but because I figure I will fall down or step off stupid.
Good fortune is that the area seems pretty well set up for this not to be stupidly difficult. And eyeballing some of the piping in the pole barn I think I might be able to set up a small watercress bed if I'm smart about it. The whole section is really two watery divots split with a fairly solid ground spit.