Germination has begun!

Tiny leaves of spinach, lettuce, and snap peas are all beginning to come up. In addition, Scott planted a few more strawberry plants to fill out the row and I put two rosemary plants in a tiny empty spot near the tomatoes. I think we lost a few of our old strawberry plants when I was savagely turning the soil this year. I worked the soil in early March, adding a bit of sand (to help break up and drain our heavy clay soil) along with some peat moss and dairy cow manure. The manure came from the farm where we keep our cow (yes, we have a cow share so that we can drink raw milk). Next time we go collect manure, we'll be sure to take stronger bags. Ours were wimpy, wimpy, wimpy and broke when we filled them more than a third full with the heavy, dense manure. Scott was having some issues at work that day, despite the fact that it was a Saturday, and so he ended up on the phone most of the time while I shoveled manure. Ahh, the delights of making his way up to management!

Here are some photos of what's going on in our garden today:

Lettuce. There are three seeds coming up there -- can you see them all? Tiny, I know.

The strawberry patch. Or, in this case, the strawberry row. Last year we had lots of half strawberries. Most of them had big bites out of them from birds. This year I'll cover them with netting when they begin to fruit. Or leave the dog in the sideyard. Or maybe both.

The rosemary I bought today at Whole Foods. I wish it could be grown as a perennial here, but it usually freezes and dies by October.

These are actually Brynn's snap peas that she planted back in late February or early March when we were just starting the process of amending the soil. They're finally starting to come up...although only two out of about ten seeds have germinated. I planted more so she won't be disappointed with a meager harvest. Although, we usually don't get a chance to harvest snap peas. The girls eat them all off the vines before I can get the peas inside!

As a bonus, here are two photos of my Rose Tree of China. It is one of my favorite plants in the sideyard. It's on the perennials/non-veggie side of the yard (although I'll probably be planting tomatoes around it a month from now). I bought it from Lowes as a bare root plant in the spring of 2006. I've not had good luck with bareroot trees or shrubs, but this one seems to be proving to be an exception. If it were outside the fence, I'm sure it would be pilfered by the deer. Inside the fence, safe and irrigated, it seems to be happy. Here's one photo of the shrub itself and one close up. The flowers should open up in the next few days, so I'll take a photo of it then so you can see it in all its glory. I'm glad it blooms early...it gives me confidence that summer will come, eventually!