Watch our garden grow

... Or rather, watch the dimensions of our garden grow.

Worked on expanding two small plots of garden yesterday -- joining them together to create one bigger plot. Lots of hacking up the turf, knocking off dirt and earthworms, and carting away wheelbarrows of the weed-grass sod.

Evan mixed in some compost and mushroom soil and evened out the old and new garden sections. We now have two plots as pictured below; the other plot is just a big brown rectangle of dirt and stones and a couple weary thyme plants, so it doesn't make for much to look at.

But here's the newer plot, in which we have a few things growing already:

Evan got the tiller going to loosen up all of the soil on the far side of the plot, where we then planted two rows of onions.

The onion-y looking rows in the photo are actually garlic that we planted last fall. I'm hoping/ expecting it to be ready to be pulled up in June. Garlic is new territory for us, so we'll see...

The part of the garden in the front of the picture is planted with some of this garlic, plus shallots (planted last week; still not sprouted), cilantro and baby spinach. A few of the baby spinach plants surprised us and survived the winter; I planted some more seeds of the same in-between the survivors, and they are just starting to sprout above the earth.

Today we got lots of rain! I hope we'll see some growin' going on by the weekend.

Asparagus rising

Not quite two weeks ago, the asparagus was barely peeping out of the soil.

As of tonight... it's about as tall as our son!

We're letting the asparagus go/ grow this year; I've read that you should let it grow three years before cutting it. But depending on how many shoots come up next year, we might not be able to wait that long!

Straight to summer

One week ago, we were on the cusp of spring...

In six days, spring was bypassed and we got an early preview of summer.

With temperatures soaring into the 80s, the garden, trees, lawn, everything burst into greenness. It was bright and hot and, really, a little much, but we tried to take advantage of the warm weather. Among a number of other projects, Evan transplanted some Tiger lilies that were overgrowing their space. We decided a new good location for the overflow was by the side of the barn, where there is a stone wall.

We also dug up the garden some more. I tried to instill some order on one corner of the plot, raked in some compost and planted two rows of shallots. Shallots don't sound all that exciting, but seeing how we cook with a ton of shallots, I could probably plant the entire garden with shallots and it would be worthwhile. I planted two rows -- around 35 bulbs. Here are some sitting in a row, before I pushed them down into the ground and covered the sides of the bulbs with dirt. In the background, to the right, is garlic that we planted last fall.

Finally... we marveled at how much the asparagus grew in the past week, thanks to the heat wave. Here's a photo of some of the asparagus yesterday:

Compare to my post from a week ago (below), when it was just a few inches above the ground. It must have grown, oh, three or four inches, at least, in a week. And in the past day it grew another two inches, or maybe even three.

Now, spring, now!

The flowers are just beginning to bud, as are a few trees. One warm day yesterday, a spring tease. Here's an even more hopeful indicator: We pulled back the mulched leaves that had been protecting the asparagus that we planted last year. And found this underneath:

I am in awe!

The largest shoot is only a few inches long, but it is recognizable and vibrant-looking, even in its paleness.

We planted some strawberry plants and baby spinach, and Evan turned up some more turf to connect two of our four small garden plots.

The garden is otherwise a wash of ugly dirt and shale, worn down by winter. There are a few perennials trying to come back to life; a feeble row of garlic, green tops beginning to perk up; and some volunteer cilantro clinging close to the ground.