This is by far my favorite time of year, filled with hope and aspiration (and inspiration). This week was largely spent planting; strawberries, raspberries, and fruit trees. The next few weeks will be vegetables and herbs and a few more fruit trees. Unfortunately we won't have fruit to speak of this year, but next year we'll be making fruit crisps, drying fruit for use in tea and just plain eating fruit! And possibly distilling fruit tree blossoms.Strawberries were purchased from Johnny's seeds and are Earliglow (early), Jewel (mid-late) and Seascape (day-neutral). This combination should allow us to be able to harvest strawberries from early summer to early fall.
Raspberries include Polana (everbearing), Nova (summer bearing) and a black raspberry, Jewel (summer bearing). The stick of a plant is barely visible planted here in compost. It will soon start to bear green leaves though.
The fruit trees shown in the picture below are a row of sour cherries; Montmorency. We did get several other trees including apples, pears and peaches, some of which haven't arrived yet.
Other fruit we already have includes rhubarb, Nanking cherries and choke cherries, a few plums, an apricot (which would seldom if ever bear fruit here in our climate) and some type of apple. We may remove a decorative crabapple to make room for something else. The choke cherries will be used to make cough medicine. Oh, and I nearly forgot there are a few gooseberries here and I planted currants in the fall. I've recently read about gooseberry extracted being tauted for use in skin care.After all this planting our muscles and joints are sore. Yes, spring is a time when we appreciate a hot tub!
We are finally getting much needed precipitation here in Colorado, in the form of snow which is accompanied by cold, cold weather. After several weeks of warm, spring-like weather that forced me outside to plant seeds in my raised beds I am now hoping that their plastic covering is enough to keep them warm. I do have tomatoes growing in my greenhouse though and have just planted squash and cucumber seeds too. I rub my hands across the tiny tomatoe seedlings daily to stengthen their stems. Fruit trees, strawberry plants and raspberry bushes are on order. Am hoping that the next few weeks we will be above freezing and outdoor work can again resume. In the meantime, reading and learning more about the plants I grow or want to grow is what feeds the the soul. The Essential Herbal Magazine is where much of that reading is. You can download a free copy of "The Essential Herbal Magazine" yourself to help in your spring planning. This particular issue (March 2008) includes information on growing a Victory Garden. Click here to download this copy, its sure to stimulate thoughts for your soon to be planted garden: 