Maple Tree Seeds

I’m hoping pollinators show up in force today. Two apple trees and the pear tree are in bloom. The other apple tree is not far behind them. The lone bumblebee I saw on Friday will have a big task ahead if it’s the only one doing this work.

We got rain yesterday, not much, enough to delay watering the garden. I’m working on the irregularly shaped plot, the one with sunken containers, pallets of supplies, and composting bins. I dug up half the volunteer daylillies and hope to dig up the other half today. Spring transplanting of daylillies is okay if one trims the green portions to about half. They should take once a spot for them is identified. They grow like weeds. They are weeds where they currently are.

A corner of this plot, next to the containers, will be lettuce and radicchio with row covering over them. The long row needs something that can grow without a deer fence. I don’t know if I have that as they eat almost anything. The middle-sized row may be Brussels sprouts which are a long time until harvest. Once they are in and mulched, sprouts are low-maintenance and can grow with a little water and that’s it. If I go through the packed greenhouse I’m confident I will gain inspiration.

It is best to plant the plot so I don’t have to enter it much, because in a moment of losing presence of mind, I installed a wall on three sides of the growing space. Won’t be fixing that this year, though. What was I thinking? I wasn’t.

The sun is up and there’s work to do. I’ll leave you with one of my favorite passages in English literature.

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licóur
Of which vertú engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye,
So priketh hem Natúre in hir corages,
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially, from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales.

Here’s the plot after working my shift. The row covered part has lettuce, spinach, radicchio and cilantro. The four tubs next to it are potatoes. and two in the background have cruciferous vegetables in one and will have basil in the other.The rest of it was fertilized and tilled.