Spring has Sprung

The ornamental pear is blooming.  That means spring has sprung.  It's a roller coaster ride into summer.  Windy, calm, warm, cold, sunny, cloudy.  The theme that runs through out spring is:  Get 'er done!   There is manure to haul in from a neighbor's house and  horse shed to complete followed by fencing.  There are onions, garlic, potatoes and 3 kinds of peas to plant.

But first!.... we have to finish setting up the new, improved veggie garden irrigation set-up.  Maybe we will do that today even though the wind is ripping.  I got my order from Dripworks.  Hubby says I shouldn't have bought the new brass manifold for $17 because the outlet holes are too small unlike the superior sized manifolds he makes with super duper outlet holes.  He's probably right because he usually is on all this mechanical stuff but I bought the stuff exactly like the picture showed in the catalog.  The good news is I can actually use the new brass manifold somewhere else if it isn't working out for the garden.  That means I don't have to box up the new manifold, stand in line at the post office which must be 7 miles away, waste an hour of my day and a gallon of four dollar per gallon gas and then spend five dollars to ship it back.

The baby tomato plants look super even if they are just getting their first true leaves!  I have been putting them in the greenhouse and then bringing them back inside before dark.  I just got the greenhouse set up a few days ago.  Turns out I had a leak in the "pond" in the middle of the greenhouse and 3/4 of the water was gone.  Yesterday I got the rest of the water out and re-lined the hole with some new plastic off the roll. I'll have to see if that worked.  I need to see what the over night low is in the greenhouse for a few more days and make sure it is stable enough for tender babies to camp out by themselves.

The daffodils are up but they look a bit dwarfish.  They aren't getting very tall this year.  I am thinking that the ground is pretty dry.  Too cold to water most of February and just about zero rain.  The soil is moist only to about 12 inches, at best, and that isn't much.

The crabapples and the fruit trees are threatening to bud out.  The longer the trees wait the better.  Sure it was 45 degrees overnight but it is sure to freeze again soon.  The iris are coming up and so are the daylillies.  Of course they aren't anywhere close to blooming but that is a nice touch of green around the yard.

The grasses are just starting to really come on strong.  I am concerned that it is really dry even for rice grass and will try to give a few areas a boost by moving a sprinkler around the yard on a day when I am home and the wind isn't howling.

I still have 20 asparagus plants to get in, as well.  How hard can that be?  Well, we have to hook them into the existing tree and shrub zone so I figure that is 20 holes to pop into the 3/4 inch tubing and 20 long barbs, 20 1/4 inch pieces of tubing crowned by 20 T's forty short pieces of 1/4 inch and then forty 1/2 gallon per hour Woodpecker Pro drippers.  Yeah, it really is a lot of work.  It will be worth it if we have delectable asparagus next spring.  Gardners are always looking forward to what the yard will be when the plants are mature:)

Happy Spring!!!!