Spring Garden

A beautiful day.  Wonderful clear skies.  Looks like it stayed above freezing last night.  Right now it is 38 degrees.  I need to rest up today.  I have to clean a house tomorrow and I don't like being tired for my housecleaning jobs.

I feel that spring is on track.  One cannot slow down too much but I am really quite thrilled with what has been accomplished so far.  Prioritizing on finishing any transplanting and getting the new shutters done.  Looks like the winds will be reasonable today and tomorrow but gusting to 25 tomorrow night.

We will have been living at this house for 6 years in July. It was so hot that year and the house just couldn't be cooled enough for my taste. The second summer wasn't much better.  Now that we have some greenery around the house it is a lot better here.

I was thinking back to our first spring here.  That was five years ago.  I worked so hard that spring to get the dead tumbleweeds and brush burned.  I weeded and weeded.  Well, I am still weeding.  But it has improved.  I put in a lot of little plants.  And half of them died.  The second year I put in quite a few little plants and about a quarter of them died.  By the third year I was getting more proficient at gardening in the desert.  It was success at last.

This will be our fifth spring here.  I am not ordering any new plants.  I am making sure that the plants we do have [and there is plenty]  get the best fertilization and pruning and such they can have.  I am transplanting some items to make better use of the drip system and the area nearer to the house.  There is still plenty of weeding to be done and I am not really doing as good a job as years before.  The plan is to get the goats working for me on the back two acres.  That leaves me with about 3 acres to do my best on.

The only new plants I put in, so far, are some native brush from down near the river.  My friend down there let me dig up two kinds of thorny looking babies [I don't know what they are, I'll have to try to find out] and some baby sagebrush.  I am having native shrubbery out back along the fence by the road.  They don't need much water and they are my first line of defense for the winds that rip through here.  So far they all seem to be living through their transplanting.

I think I will fertilize the new North windbreak today.  It has been well over a week since I transplanted and I want them to grow fast!  Just a light fertilization.  I suppose it is time to get moving.  Looks like I can hang the laundry on the line today.  That is a money saver and it is good for the environment.

Couldn't fertilize North windbreak since I need parts that should arrive tomorrow.  Laundry done.  Spring garden transplanting, not done but I did transplant a bunch of Japanese iris and a bunch of daffodils.  Have to wait and do more on Friday or Saturday.

Fertilizing fruit tree zone  with overnight watering.

Grazed goats this evening.  Cleared weeds from the garden this morning and fed them 3 bins of weeds.

Mosquitoes are out this evening.  Hate it.  So far no buffalo gnats.  Hope it won't be like last year when my eyes were swelling shut.  I am definitely allergic to the gnats.

Plenty left on the list so starting again on Saturday to get it all done.

Happy springtime to all.