Previous to now (even in the winter), I try to go hiking once a week. But lately I just haven’t made it up into the mountains. Yesterday I went on a bike ride that started up a canyon and went down into the city.  Up in the canyon is a lot of dormant plants, mud, and even snow. Down in the valley the cherries and apircots are starting to bloom, along with forsythias, currants,  mahonia and bulbs. All the new spring leaves are making there first appearance, and the lawn is green and growing. I’ve also been busy working on starting my garden up this year, along with starting the maintenance for the landscape and several landscape designs.

So why am I not out hiking? I’m busy with garden tasks and besides that, it’s prettier here. I’ll go after my tomatoes are in and the weather starts to heat up more, demanding a break for the cool mountain air. Right now, I’m enjoying mowing lawns, adding compost, planting spring crops, and cleaning up the outside. Everything is still exciting after the long winter break. Gardening easily puts all other recreational tasks on hold, and I’m okay with that.

Also, today I transplanted my tomato seedling right when I should have. They weren’t huge like all the previous ones I’ve done. I also decided in future years to go ahead and double my lights. The plants are doing okay with just one light above them, but a little leggier than I would like them.

I had  a lot to do outside, but it was wet today. So my transplants inside got some desperately needed attention. (Except the few that were pulled up by little toddler.) Rainy, lazy days are nice.

The weather was pretty great this week. Tons of fun garden activities.  It was a lot more fun with a borrowed old pick-up that my toddler loved. He got to be in the front (air-bag off of course), and thought it was the best thing in the world. I seeded my tomatoes and some coleus early in the week, tried to go easy on the number I was planting. Still, with 5+ varieties of tomatoes for 3 of us, I’m thinking I’ll just have too many. Good think I have lots of friends to share them with.

The community garden is coming along nicely.

My garden plot--planted.

The garden plot got a big layer of compost. I hoed the compost in a little, but mostly left it to decay in by itself. I’m thinking less tilling will do fine, if not preserve some soil structure and it is a lot less work. It’s an experemient: we’ll see how it does sans tilling. Yesterday the temperatures was in the 70’s, and I planted my cool season crops: peas, lettuce, chard, kohlrabi and radishes. Then this morning I woke up to this:

April Fool's joke, just two days late.

What?….I guess it is spring, and here it means occasional snow. I didn’t expect the sky to open up and drop a foot down though. (It seemed a lot like the comics where it falls all down in seconds. Go to bed it’s rainy, but still warm, wake up and kazzaam: snow.) Lots of branch breakage from the heavy snow as well, which is more work for me.

Other tasks I was up to this week included buying a lawnmower and a lot of other yard equipment. Small stores are nicer than big department stores. I bought a mower at a big box store, and they helped me put the box in my truck. I was left to do everything else. I bought a weedwhacker at a small, independent store. They made sure it was the right model for me (I love it), gassed it up and made sure it was working properly and that I knew how to use it.

I also hired out for a pruning job. The trees were old and in need of much love–here is some before/after pictures of the apple trees.

They aren’t done yet, but it’s enough for one year. May I say, never let your trees get this bad. Prune them when your don’t need a chainsaw, just a basic pair of loppers. I also bought a new pair of loppers and I adore them. Very ergonimc: I could slice through branches that I probably should use a saw on. I love the telescopic handles on the larger trees I was doing as well. The only bad part was how wide they needed to open in order to cut bigger branches–but it was worth the effort it saved.

After a snowy, yucky day Friday, I was surprised to find the soil was actually workable yesterday. Maybe a little on the wet side, but not saturated or soggy. There is no longer sod covering my future garden plot. It still needs lots of work–tree roots (never put a garden plot next to a tree), asphalt chunks, and rocks still need removal. I also want to add a good layer of compost. But I should be able to plant peas extremly soon.

Community gardens are fun. Yesterday there was a group of us working together, which always makes work more enjoyable. I have to say my husband is a great worker, and he’s the reason we no longer have sod. We just did it by hand because it was only a 10 x 10 area. I think some people are giving up and renting a sod cutter though.

The forsythias are starting to come out. That seems to be the trigger for a slew of spring gardening activities, like putting down pre-emergent. I don’t have to do that, but I do need to start pruning the overgrown roses. Walking by them yesterday, I noticed the buds were swollen, with leaves starting to push out.

I also finally finished up a list of local garden center, available here if you are interested.