Dandelions |
It's one of my favorite times of the year. The days are warm, the nights are cool, the sky is a deeper blue than any other time of year, and the first flowers of the year are popping out everywhere. Shown above is one of the many dandelions popping up around my garden. The entire plant, including the flowers, leaves, and roots is edible. The flowers are awesome eaten fresh, with a sweet, honey suckle flavor. They can also be battered and fried or used to make wine. I'm not a big fan of the greens as I find them bitter, but many like them in salads or lightly boiled. The roots can be used to make tea, but I've never done it.
When harvesting any wild edible, make sure you know what you're picking and only harvest it from areas that you know have not been treated with chemicals.
Further reading HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Strawberry flowers |
Green onions sending up scapes |
Nanking cherry blossom |
That said, if it holds off and doesn't freeze we are looking at a monster crop of strawberries this year. Each of my 77 transplants is loaded with flowers as depicted above. This is perfect growing weather for them.
The green onions have sent up scapes (leafless flower stalks), which is to be expected. Onions are biennial plants in that they produce seed in their second year. I started these plants from seed early last spring and am pretty excited to complete the process of gathering my own seeds from plants that I started from seed.
The Nanking cherry bushes are blossoming in their second year. While it is usually recommended to remove blossoms for the first few years on fruiting perennials, Nanking bush cherries are so hardy though, that we expect get a small crop from them in their second season.
Sand plum tree blossoming out |
Transplanted volunteer cilantro |
The cilantro have tripled in size in the last week. I wasn't so sure that they would handle the transplanting well, but they are doing great. They really like a moist soil, so I've kept them well watered using water from the rain barrel.
Chickens finishing up their work in the garden |
Our chickens dug up and ate every weed from the beds, then leveled the soil back out. This is one of those win/win situations. They apparently don't find the strawberry plants appetizing and being planted in the blocks protected them from being scratched up. I put the upside down aquarium over the cilantro to protect them from the chickens while they were in there.
"Crash" and flowering daffodils |
Chicken and Egg Report:
We are remaining at four eggs per day. In the next month or so, we will get new chicks to eventually replace our current flock.
Weather Outlook:
-Cooler. Highs near 60 every day. We may see a light frost Sunday evening. A chance of rain today and Saturday and then again on Tuesday.
-Ten day forecast
What's Being Harvested:
-Not much right now other than wild edibles.