Good Morning! Happy Saturday and Happy Planting Day! Yes, I’m using upper case letters because in my world Planting Day is an official holiday. It’s really Planting Weekend around here.
We have some pots to deal with. Winnie and I can’t wait!
The marigold seedlings can’t wait either. Their ready to move in to their new homes.
I have to give us a little pat on the back because we made headway on borders like this over the past week. There’s still a lot to do but it’s getting there.
Talk to me about the blueberry bushes. We planted two of these last fall and I dare say their looking good. For relatively new, small bushes they have lots of flowers that appear to be turning into berries. Should we cover them? Will the birds eat them? Anyone?
We’re eating plenty of asparagus now. My whole family enjoys asparagus. I think that’s because the kids grew up as it was becoming established and Michael and I were so thrilled with every stalk we served when they were younger.
This black australorp is sitting because her leg hurts and she’s not using it. We’ve treated her in every way possible and she’s still hopping on one leg, but she’s laying eggs, eating and seems quite happy. It’s a watch and wait situation.
Michael found a bag of yellow onion sets blowing around in the street downtown and brought them home, so now we’ll have yellow onions this year.
The red onions are cooking right along.
As is the lettuce which could be thinned out. The one advantage of a very cool spring is a nice crop of lettuce.
Kale… I bought these seedlings at the Salem High School plant sale a few weeks ago, which was a fun event!
The sweet peas are going to start climbing the fence any second now.
It’s almost time for iris!!!
And check out this awesome gardening basket that I won at the Salem Beautification Committee’s plant sale last Sunday. I never win anything. It was a great sale and a nice surprise!
The official out in the garden season is off to a pretty good start!
Plant, plant, plant!
Hope your in the garden today!
Love, Michele
The Salem Garden 
I can’t believe how much further along your plants are than mine. It must be how shaded my yard is. My perennials are up but certainly not large like yours. Nice job and getting your garden going to well. I found bird netting online at Amazon.com two years ago. I couldn’t find it locally — so hard to find anything locally. The other thing on my list is to start worm composting. A bait shop near me sells red wigglers. I am assuming I can use those so I don’t have to worry about those little worms going through the mail (which I don’t trust here).
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You know, we’re really just a mile from the ocean so it’s probably several degrees warmer here than even a few more miles inland, that’s probably why we’re ahead. Yes, red wiggler worms are good for worm composting. I have a thriving worm bin going at my job and I think I might start one here at home very soon. It took me a little while to figure out the ins and outs of what works but once I did it really took off. You can see our Bass River bin here. http://bassrivergarden.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/feeding-the-worms/ It’s not a super descriptive post because it isn’t that type of blog but if I start a bin here I’ll probably be chatting about them a lot. In the meantime feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions that I might be able to help with. It’s great that you found a local source for worms. I couldn’t find one here so we’ve just ordered them from Uncle Jim’s and the mail thing went fine.
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I hope you do a post on worm composting. I think I have the concept down, but would love to have a simple reference to go back to along the way. I did use worm castings from one of my garden beds on my other plants — scooped them up and redistributed them — resulting in some really healthy, prolific plants.
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Vermicompost is the best! I’ll work on getting it together and blogging about it Michele!!
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I worked outside all morning. 🙂 Cover or not to cover blueberries – depends on your bird population. We haven’t covered them in previous years, but a MG friend covers all of hers because she feeds the birds and she has a huge population. She made a hoop house with netting right over the top of hers. Pretty interesting. Love your basket.
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I think I’ll cover them then. We have a bird feeder quite close to these bushes and our population is pretty large. I like the hoop house idea. That sounds easier than what I was envisioning the netting to look like. Hope you have a great holiday Judy!
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Everything looks so good Michele! Really, everything! What a wonderful time of the year, right? We’re now finished with our asparagus. What a treat that was, even if not a ton this year. I hope your hen’s leg is better soon. poor thing. I like the wiring/fencing you have for your sweet pea. It’s much more tidy than the chicken wire we’ve used (making mental note!). I’m going to leave it to your locals to comment on your blueberries. They are definitely doing very well. I’d think that you don’t need to cover them until the berries have come on a bit more. The birds like them nice and sweet too! 😉 So glad you won that lovely hamper! It’s funny how winning something can make you smile!
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HI Dana! That wiring is just what we put on that fence years ago to keep the bunnies out. I’m hoping for good blueberries, we’ll see! I’m glad you enjoyed your asparagus, there’s nothing like it!
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I’m not very far along this year. Work demands have prevented me from spending much time in the garden. The basket you won looks wonderful! I hope you’ve gotten a lot done this weekend. Can’t wait to see if your blueberries are successful.
Happy Memorial Day!
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HI Cindy! There’s still time, you did so much last year, I hope you can have at least a little garden this year even if it’s on your deck. Happy Memorial Day to all of you!
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Yes, the birds will eat your blueberries if you don’t cover them!
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covers on the way. I think I saw some at Agway?
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