Going outdoors

Tomatoes.

Green Day for sure, actually a couple of days ago.

That's the day the buds sprout on the deciduous trees and give the forest canopy a green hue. It's very late this year.  That's not surprising but  actually it is only a little more than a week later than last year despite the long, cold spring we have been experiencing.  I mean, a week ago today it was snowing.  But that's in the past and Green Day has finally sprouted and it couldn’t have come a minute later.

This robin did not appear happy to
find patches of snow in the yard a
week ago.

The combination of starting plants early and the late winter weather has left this house a jungle.  I have tomato plants four feet high and green bean plants that have beans on them three inches long. I have been moving and juggling positions across almost 20 feet of windows to try to keep them all in the sun but I have lost a few already.  Yesterday the hardening process began.  Take them outside during the day and bring them in at night for a few days to get them used to the direct sun, wind and perhaps cooler temperatures and then day after tomorrow I will plant and then figure out what to do with the usual gaps between plants.  I am keeping the tomato plants indoors for a while longer; I understand they are a little more fragile than the others.

The hardening machine.

Green beans about a week
ago.

Got a little creative with the hardening process this year.  Always before  one by one I carried the plants out and put them in the garden in the morning and then reversed the process in the evening.  This year I found I could park the four-wheeler by the door, fill the trailer with plants and then drive it out into the sun.  Move it around during the day and then bring it back to the door in the evening, with just a short hop with the plants to bring them indoors for the night.  And, rather than try to fit them all on the tables in the windows, figuring they are supposed to be in the dark anyway, I spread a tarp on the living room floor and put them there.  It's a little inconvenient, but only for a couple of days and it does make the process go quicker.

Despite the weather, too, the ground is in the best shape all weeded and raked out and level and fertilized, just ready for planting.  I have a lot more vegetables this year and hope to eat a little more off the garden than I have in the past.  We'll see about that.  I have another bag of those assorted wild seeds to scatter too, only these are all native Alaska flowers so that should add some color.  All told with the sun out it looks a lot more optimistic for a good year. 

It looked optimistic enough today, along with the weather forecast, I planted a row of asparagus (for harvest next year) and spread some of the wildflower seeds in the spot among the trees.  Let's call that fairyland, a place where the sprites can dance.

Green Day.