May Day

What a beautiful May 1! It's perfect weather for working outside.

We took apart the hoop house which collapsed this winter under the heavy snow. We plan to rebuild the walls and reinforce the plastic tubing top for better load handling. We will definitely have it up in time for summer peppers, tomatoes, eggplants and basil. The hoop house definitely extends the season.

There are lots of blossoms right now on the strawberries so I hope we get a great harvest this year. We don't have a lot but have been expanding the area every year. Last year we froze more than we have been able to use so far. I hope we can sell some again this June. I never count on anything until I actually have them harvested, though, because in gardening (especially with chickens about), you never know.

We still have some loose chickens wandering around (it's the rooster! he lures the hens where we don't want them to be) which is fine except that they gravitate toward the seeds I've just planted and scratch things up. The rabbits are bad enough, but chickens can just hop over any rabbit fence. Last fall, just before I was ready to harvest the beautiful collards we'd grown and the day before we planned to capture the chickens for their winter quarters, the chickens ate all the collards! At least they got a good nutritious treat.

I sometimes say I practice "Survivor: Gardening" - a nod to the tv show and not a reference to any apocalyptic mindset. In addition to the normal disasters and set backs gardeners experience, it seems that sometimes I plant things and he-who-shall-not-be-named gets on the old tractor (or tiller) and the next thing I know, it's gone. I THINK this happened with some asparagus that I planted last year, but since I didn't make a photo record of it, I can't prove it (our memories are both pretty bad).

Our wonderful dog, Rose, the best dog in the world, is recuperating after spraining her leg last week. She has been diagnosed with Cushing's disease but seems to be responding well to her medication. In addition to being the best dog in the world, she used to be the best rabbit dog in the world, but now she doesn't see too well, so mostly now she is just the best dreaming-about-rabbits dog in the world.

Well, I'm off to pull sprouting rye grass from the onions (another Survivor: Gardening challenge - the section that was approved for planting by the tractor guy had apparently been seeded with rye grass (or oats) and now that my seedlings are up, I need to pull the other stuff (but the chickens will get them)).

Later today, I'll visit the asparagus patch and see what's coming up.