Spring is here, really it is

It's a wet one here in Humboldt

It may not feel like Spring is here in Humboldt, and in many other parts of the country right now, but Spring is here, I have found signs of her arrival.  Really, it's true!  Look!

The salmon berries are starting to bloom!  Yum!  Now if I can only beat the birds to the berries.

 A poor little soaked daffodil

 I'm not sure what these flowers are, but they tell me spring is here

 Wild onions - it smelled delicious here.

 The blackberries are budding.

 Horsetails

 Lupin - not blooming yet, but they will soon enough

If you look around - the signs of Spring are everywhere - before we know it we'll be complaining about the heat.

How does your garden grow?

I haven't posted much lately. I've been trying to get busy in my garden. So far I've mainly got my herbs planted. Here's my oregano, plus some marjoram.

More herbs. I love being able to step out my door and grab fresh herbs when I cook! I have basil, dill, Italian parsley, summer and winter savory.
My romaine lettuce starts are going well. We need to get that cold frame set up so I can move them. This is the second round on my milk jug cloches. This is a great way to start seeds.
My amaranth is making a come back.
My oriental spinach, which I started in my milk jugs a few months ago. It's doing fantastic! I happened to notice our local nursery is selling oriental spinach now. I wonder where they got their seeds. Mine came from China Town in Oakland. I've decided that this stuff will grow pretty much anywhere, since I'm having such success with it. We've recently tested our soil and discovered it's low in everything, nitrogen, phosphorous, potash, and everything else, except acidity, which, typical of the pacific northwest, it's high in.

The Chinese kale I started in my milk jugs is hanging in there. It's not doing as well as the spinach. It's probably needing one of those elements our soil is low in. Hopefully it will keep hanging in there.
The artichokes are producing! Yeah!
Well, back to the garden. I stopped at the nursery yesterday and I created more work for myself. Off to go dig in the dirt.........

Spring! Already?

I haven't written here in a while, but I've decided to revive my poor neglected Ignorant Gardener blog. I have so much to say and learn about gardening and it ties in so well with my food blog Omnivores Delight.

So this weekend I had the time to get out in my garden and start cleaning up and getting ready for spring and planting. I had so many Woo Hoo! moments. First was the fact that I had already cleaned up the upper patch of my vegie garden, meaning I only had to focus on the bottom section. I still had beets to harvest and discovered the carrot seeds I accidentally spilled took and I now have several carrots to harvest soon. That is, if I can beat the nasty little gophers to them. I gathered seeds from my collards and broccoli to replant this spring and was surprised to find one of the broccoli plants growing a new head. They're becoming perennial on me. The coolest Woo Hoo garden moment was when I was cleaning out around my artichokes and asparagus. The asparagus that I thought was a failure that I told my husband to plow over with the rototiller because it obviously isn't going to grow in our soil, and then there it is popping up randomly throughout the garden asparagus. The asparagus that I learned later needs three years before it produces anything of significance, but will provide you with a spring crop for the next 20 to 30 years.

Since I first planted those asparagus plants I have since learned from one of the farmers at our local farmers market that where I live is ideal for asparagus. And considering how hard we tried to kill those plants, thinking they were already dead, and there they are putting out spears not just in Spring but in Fall as well, and then yesterday I discover this:



So apparently Spring has arrived in mid January! I real spear of asparagus. It's the only one, but I'm so excited, and I will be planting more now that I know the time line. I think I'll go buy some prosciutto to wrap around that one little spear. All I know is, it may be one spear, but I'm not wasting my precious bounty.

Happy garending!