A Walk in the Garden Spring walks through the garden are difficult to talk about. By the time summer arrives the walks will have become common place and much of the magic gone. But, in the spring the garden a constant feast for the senses. Everything is new and interesting. This morning i went out to open up the greenhouse to keep it from overheating. When i got back it was lunch time. At first i thought the clock was wrong. All i did was check a few plants, pull a few weeds, and water the sprouts. Hummm, i did find a shot borer in one of the apple trees that needed attention. Then, there was a need to thin a few of the pear trees, on and on. Most of our apples are now in bloom and the asparagus is being harvested for each meal. The carrot bed is sprouting and soon it will be time to hill up the potatoes. Next years garden is now a mass of buckwheat shoots and all the alliums are growing strongly. I can see small pears and cherries starting to form. Most of the herbs are now out of the sun room. We have started harvesting leaves from the rosemary, parsley, and many of the other hardy herbs. The stevia surprised us by freezing to the ground then sprouting from the roots. The stevia we kept in the house also survived. I'm going to try Sandra's suggestion to plant borage around the potatoes and other crops. It seems to attract bugs and pollinators plus it reseeds itself. Another plant i might play with is lovage. It seems to love growing here and is a perennial. One book said it is a replacement for celery but i found it is best used sparingly. And that is spring in zone 7. ---------- Jeff Owens ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Zone 7, http://www.teleport.com/~kowens Underground house, solar energy, reduced consumption, no TV
