Home on the Hill

Given the last week of rain I was pleasantly surprised by the progress the garden is making. A real treat was the Hakurei turnips we planted. They are a delicious crisp sweet white globe about two inches across and so tender you can eat them like an apple. We had a pile left over after thinning and enjoyed them yesterday raw and in a stir fry. They are extremely fast growing, like a radish so we are hoping to get another crop before freeze up. Several of our cabbages have headed up - a little early for storage, but welcome none the less. It was a Sunny yet slightly overcast day yesterday and it looks like it is going to be the same today. When we got up this morning it was warmer inside than outside - something that hasn't happened a lot this year. A common site around the wetter areas and along the roadside ditches and depressions are Cow parsnips : A very interesting and prolific plant. It is edible but caution is advised as it's juice can cause skin problems due to it...

We've had some sun lately and I have started to see the snow shrinking around the tire planters in the "re-tired" garden. Planting time in getting closer. The inside six inches of soil that is against the tires is frost free. The middles are still frozen. We left most of the tires with agricultural cloth covering the lids and they didn't stand up to the winters snow. The ones that had plastic on them did. Soon it will be time to repair all the lids, put some more tinfoil in the tires and get ready for planting. Lettuce in May! Yesterday Jo-Ann declared the remaining turnips in the inside out cold storage fridge were now inedible and bound for the compost pile. They lasted over five months which, I believe, is generally pretty good for turnips in cold storage. The big surprise was the zuchinni which lasted three months. We got off to a bad start last year and the turnips especially got crowded out with lambs foot, as the yard help we had hired when we left fo...