Saturday Farmer's Market - It's Official! Spring is here!

Created by Heather at Capricious Reader, and now hosted by Chris at Stuff as Dreams are Made on.

Good morning

&

Happy Spring to you.

It's finally here, officially. But I'm sure the season will still have a few surprises in store for us.

UPDATE(s) from Last Week:     

The cold frame is up and running, nice and sturdy.

No wayward veggies will be escaping from this structure!

In fact, it has seen it's first graduates.

This week cucumbers and zucchini squash moved out and into the garden. 

So far, they're doing fine.




Next, there is my high-tech, state-of-the-art irrigation system.

We are, after all in the midst of a drought, and I have a newly planted orchard, not to mention my vegetable and herb gardens.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

gallon milk jugs (with caps)

TOOLS USED:

shovel
large nail 

With the nail, poke two holes one about halfway down an one at the bottom. Do this facing each plant.

In the ones pictured buried with my snow peas, there are four holes, two on each side.

Right now, I fill them up about every three days, and everybody is happy.

As the Weather gets hotter I will have to increase the frequency with which I fill them.

For the veggies I have buried the jugs to get the water directly to their roots and avoid any evaporation.

Digging around the trees is bad for them so the jugs sit on the soil above the roots.

A circle of ribbon keeps them from blowing away when they are empty.

Finally, how about my designer mulch!

(We still don't have the tub painted.)

I've been sorting our junk mail and shredding for the garden.

As long as it's not the shiny paper and has veggie based inks . . . they say it's good to use.

You pile it on like regular mulch then wet it down good so it goops together and doesn't fly away.

We'll see.

It looks like confetti in the garden. 

It seems like almost everyday now there is something new to look at.

 Here is the first California Poppy of the year,

 and the first of the Lavender,

Look! A Lady Bug is making her way along an Onion leaf




 

The little Azalea is happy.









 


These two little ones are Pieris Japonica. I always called them 'Lilly of the Valley' trees because their flowers look so much like them.  I don't know the cultivar of the white one, but the one with the red leaves is Mountain Fire.

 Irises

 New Daffodils and California Poppies getting ready

 I don't know what these are. Do you?