All hopped up

Aaah...Spring in Utah.  Its sort of a freeze, thaw, mud cycle around here. We're getting a little bit done outside in brief intervals of dry weather.  Last weekend we started some hop rhizomes in pots inside.  Hops are such amazing plants.  They grow exponentially.  Below demonstrates less than a 24 hour growth interval

Downstairs, things are getting crowded under the lights.  I'm hoping to get some of the bigger seedlings out under row cover if it ever decides to stop snowing.

Saturday afternoon, we dressed the raised beds and barrels with fresh compost.  It looks like really nice rich dirt, but Carson wouldn't take our word for it. He decided on a taste test.

If toddlers can taste properly balanced soil, its bound to be a good year!

Trees!

Despite the stormy weather, 2 apples and an Italian plum arrived bare root in a tidy cardboard box last Wednesday night.  I came home from my late shift to this.

Amazing.  I did a little dance.  A couple of days later, Tyler dug some holes and we placed the trees per the included instructions from Trees of Antiquity.

I'm pretty excited about this.  Now all we need is some real spring weather.

Getting to Work

Its here, that time of year when we get warmer days and the soil warms up and dries out a bit.  If you have seed packets that say "as soon as soil can be worked," its game on friends.

I spent last Sunday cleaning up my strawberry patch, dividing up some runners and then laying a nice few inches of compost.  Thank goodness I had help hauling the bags from the car to the garden.

Inside the hoop, my spinach is up and looking happy.  My garlic is also coming up, always a good sign.

I'm sporting these pretty and so far very functional garden gloves that Tyler bought me for my birthday in January from Womanswork.

I've also got a big weekend ahead of me if the weather cooperates.  I ordered 3 fruit trees from Trees of Antiquity and they arrived today. More on that later.

They don't call it March Madness for nothing.  (OK, also... Go Huskies!!)

-JG