The garden's in!

I'd mentioned some weeks back that I wanted to enlarge the garden, but it's been too wet this spring to till.  So this week I decided to break down a bunch of boxes and just put those down to kill weeds, and be content with embiggening the garden by just a few feet: 

Covered with shredded pine mulch and straw left over from last autumn, it doesn't look too bad:

While the cardboard-covered areas can't be planted this season, my hope is while that cardboard is killing grass, it will also provide space for some vining things to spread out.  I don't know if I really have enough space on the left side of the garden above, but I've planted a hill of regular pumpkins, a hill of mini pumpkins, and a hill of watermelon.  We'll see what comes of that.  If it grows out onto the grass, Greg said he'll deal with it.  I hope we don't regret this in August.

In the middle of the garden, are some sunflowers, and in the next row over - zucchini and summer squash.  And then two rows on the far right side are green beans, and cucumbers.  There's also a small patch of dill, that, with any luck, will be ready to harvest when the cucumbers are ready to pick and turn into pickles.  Since I'm the only one here who likes dill pickles, what was canned in 2022 lasted nearly two years.  Hopefully I'll have a good crop and can put up a couple years  worth again this summer.

Yesterday, two different cherry tomato plants were purchased to grow in containers closer to the house, but there is no plan to grow garden tomatoes this year.  I still have canned tomatoes and spaghetti sauce from last year in the pantry.  

It was exciting to see the hardneck garlic planted last autumn producing scapes this spring:

The scapes were cut off and are currently in the fridge finding their way into chicken salad, egg salad, and anything else I'd normally put onions or garlic into.  

I find these scapes have a taste that is something between a mild onion and garlic, so they are great chopped up and used in a variety of ways.  

And, once again, the walking onions are doing their thing:

Just as the garden is starting to look like something, the strawberries are coming to an end.  There wasn't as great a strawberry harvest (after thinning them last autumn), but it was the perfect amount for us to eat and have a little to share.  Strawberry muffins were a hit with several friends and new neighbors this spring.

I may have been slow to pick cherries this spring, as when I finally did, there were only enough to make one cherry cobbler a couple of weeks ago.  Ah well...  I'm glad for whatever the birds got to enjoy.  Less work for me!

All the rain we've had has livened up a Japanese Maple that we contemplated cutting down last year, it looked so raggedy:

And this is our fourth spring here, and I don't recall ever seeing this spiraea produce such pretty blooms:

It's such a scruffy thing at times.  So glad we didn't cut it down either!

I hope you're enjoying spring, wherever you are.