Welcome Spring!

This weekend marked the beginning of Spring--hallelujah! The winter doldrums were getting to us...

But thankfully, we learned how to plant bulbs in the Fall to bloom very early in the Spring and usher us into our Spring Fever. Check out these early beauties:












We also invested some of our first homeowner tax return in a good dose of landscaping in our "backyard". This is just the small area immediately behind our house. Jon has been working very, very, VERY hard on the next iteration of our vegetable garden, which is becoming about the size of a farm...He's also planted our entire back acre with a nitrogen-rich cover crop called hairy vetch, which further nourishes the soil for our future plans to plant that area with lots of fruit and nut trees a couple years out.

Here are before/after pics of our backyard. Our friend Bard Erdington did a great job as he's just starting up his landscaping business. He wisely lined the pathways with recycled concrete that Jon had busted up from the old basketball court that came with our property when we bought it over a year ago, and it doesn't look half bad!

The planting area (dark areas) contains all native plants except the dwarf peach and pomegranate trees, asparagus, and artichoke plants. So exciting!

BEFORE:




AFTER:

We spent a lot of time on our front courtyard garden this weekend as well. Jon uprooted our old Kentucky bluegrass and re-sodded with a scary wonder-grass called Zoysia Grass. It will take a couple seasons to really take root and spread, but it should be gorgeous when it all comes together.

Last but not least, our buddy Lorrie came over Saturday to help us finally complete the American Clay walls we started in our living room last October. She's a PRO--Thanks Lorrie!

Next steps: We'll spend April and May starting and planting the wide variety of vegetable and herb seeds we purchased last month in the vegetable garden that Jon is preparing:

Pumpkin

Sweet Basil

Sunflowers

Squash

Radish

Chili Peppers

Celery

Corn

Blue Lake Beans

Zucchini

Chives

Eggplant

Onion

Shallots

Potatoes

Carrots

Leeks

Cilantro

Parsley

Dill

Broccoli

Watermelon

Honeydew melon

Fennel

Yay! Spring is here!