"Real" Spring has Arrived!

What a day! It's so warm (80 F; 27 C) that I came in to take a break from the midday sun and heat and the dogs were right behind me. Here's a few photos of what's popping up in the gardens today. I don't know if you are familiar with Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) but that's what this little white flower is. When you pick a flower or leaf some red-orange sap oozes out. Hence the name. It is one of my favorites and is one of the first to arrive in the spring. Bloodroot is a perennial and the underground rhizomes spread each year making it so you eventually have a mat of these lovely white flowers. I just read on wikipedia that ants gather the seeds and bring them underground; I'm going to have to watch for this! E.O. Wilson would be proud of that fact! E.O. Wilson is an amazing man! He is known for his work with ants as well as environmentalism. The science of studying ants is called "myrmecology", and is a branch of entomology (study of insects). Back to this lovely plant; Bloodroot flowers before the leaves come in. It grows low to the ground and prefers to grow in rich leaf litter and partial shade. Mine is growing under a huge maple tree on its north side. This is not a plant to grow if you have young children who may ingest plants. For little tykes plant something like mint instead!

Rhubarb is up! When the red stems get longer I yank on them, do not cut them. They pull easily from the soil line. The redder the better! I then cut the leaves off and throw the leaves in the compost pile - they are poisonous to eat! I then cut up the red rhubarb stems and boil them with maple syrup. When mushy this is delicious over vanilla ice cream or when cooled eaten in yogurt. I like to use the red and pink parts. Towards the top of the stems they gets greenish. I find the greenish part too tart. Some people like the tartness and don't mind adding extra sweetener. I still go for the pinkish/reddish parts. I'll post a favorite rhubarb bread recipe later. And once strawberries come in I'll post a strawberry-rhubarb pie recipe.

Peas, radishes, lettuce, and spinach are just starting to pop through the soil. I will do a second planting of each soon. I'm turning over two new garden spots and Kyle is getting me some composted cow manure from a local farm. One spot will be to expand the space for annual veggies and the other will be for asparagus. I planted asparagus a few years ago but it didn't do well there. I think just a little too much shade. Oh well. So last year I put in black raspberries and globe artichokes, both are doing quite well.
I didn't get much planting done this weekend. Did lots of weeding and cleaning up the perennial beds. Trying to decide what type of bin to build for our newly placed compost pile. I've had a nice big compost pile out behind the garage that always produced enough compost for all the gardens and newly planted trees but last summer I noticed comfrey growing in it. So I'm not going to use it because I'm afraid of spreading the comfrey roots into my gardens and I definitely don't want to do that!

Indoors plants are getting their true leaves and starting to look like the plants they are. Here's a peek....



I love botanical prints and found this one of Bloodroot that I thought you might enjoy.