This is spring????

 The plum tree is in blossom and my one and only hyacinth is blooming. The Japanese quince is starting to bloom as is the Japanese maple tree and some shrubs. It's going to be in the high 80's today - crazy weather for this time of year. As soon as I take my vitamins, I'm heading out to to the garden to get the heavy work done before it gets too hot.

I got over 4 hours of gardening time yesterday, not counting seedling care and feeding.  I finished planting the bed I had intended to plant the day before. Sore muscles made me postpone that job for a day and instead, I worked on seedlings - transplanting another big flat and organized my seed packets and wrote out a bunch of new labels and pulled some weeds.

Jim brought home about 20, 40 lb bags of mushroom compost which I had to unload by myself. His back is still not totally healed, so he has to avoid any heavy lifting. It was a hard working day but felt soooo good! After a bit of rest, I managed to get enough of an energy boost to try a new shrimp dish from one of my new Italian cookbooks. It was very tasty; but garlic, tomatoes and hot peppers are always a winning combination in my book! I served it over linguini. The sauce was so good it didn't even need the shrimp!

Yesterday I transplanted more broccoli, leeks and kale, I also planted some beet and shallot seeds. Those two beds are fully planted. Today I'll rototill one or two more beds after I put down a few more bags of compost and a sprinkling of organic fertilizer. The plan is to transplant and plant spinach, onions, scallions carrots and maybe lettuce if time and energy permit. I already have a few collards in one of the beds which don't seem worse for wear over a hard winter. I had never grown them before. Does anyone know if this is a perennial vegetable????? After that there will be more seedlings to transplant in the later afternoon. I do love this time of year!