Spring Forward

How apropos that on the day we "spring forward" our weather was forward-looking and quite spring-like today.  No matter how sunny it was and how itchy I got to start tossing seeds around, it is far too soon, and I must curb my enthusiasm. That didn't mean we couldn't find gardening things to do, though.

What began life as the tomato box will, this year, become the lettuce box. I will still pot a few 'maters -- especially some special seeds my Pop sent me -- but I have pretty much surrendered where tomatoes are concerned. So anyway, the box got a nice working-over with The Claw, then a fresh layer of soil, and finally a cover to discourage Teensie from confusing the lettuce box with litter box. 

Next I moved on to do some herb bed cleanup. Did you know tarragon is a runner? Neither did I. Well, I'm assuming you didn't, but maybe you did in which case I still didn't. I just noticed this today. Wait, lemme clean that up...

There. See? Look at all those baby tarragons. I finally cut down the 4-foot dried stalks of last year's tarragon. I should probably use some fresh tarragon this year, eh?

I love moss. Really a lot. I can never figure out why people spend so much time and money trying to kill it from their lawns. It's soft. It's green. It requires no mowing. Isn't that what we're hoping lawns will be? I wish my whole yard was moss. 

The peonies are coming. I love them, too. I wish my whole yard was peonies. Not really, but I'm serious about the moss.

Chives. They're so fresh and green, I couldn't help but shove the camera right into the cluster. I can't wait for new potatoes to go with 'em. 

While I was daydreaming about a yard made of moss, The Big Guy and Zuzu were busy spreading dirt and filling in some low spots. This will, hopefully, make for a smoother ride on my John Deere this summer. I love my John Deere, but if my whole yard was moss, I wouldn't need it. Huh. 

The chickens also think the sun is keeno beano on a wango stick, and they gave us a 10 eggs today. That's the record for the year so far, and not even all of them are laying yet. There was an interesting development, though (isn't there always?) I found two blue-green eggs in the babies' boxes. As I've talked about before, Ivy, whose eggs have lightened up from olive to pale olive, was the only non-brown egg layer among the babies. Obviously, this is no longer true. According the the laws of chicken heredity, there really shouldn't be another blue-green layer, but I suspect one of the ravens is a law-breaker, and I think it's Ouiser. [oh, I haven't told you that I finally named the other two raven girls, have I? After we processed the roosters, I decided to name their sisters after them, so we have Louisa (Ouiser) and Alberta (Bertie.)] Anyhow -- wait, this is too much text in a row, we need a picture --

Millicent, Prudence, and Edith enjoy a pumpkin from friend Justina.

Okay, whew. So, there I was, cleaning out the coop this morning, and Ouiser was in the top box with Vera on top of her. Ouiser had no intention of scooting over to accomodate Vera, and Vera didn't seem to mind laying on top of Ouiser. I could tell that Vera was going to pop her egg any second, but the problem was her butt was kind of overhanging the edge of the box. While I was contemplating moving her into the bottom box, Ivy came in and plopped herself in it. Then Vera's egg dropped neatly into the top box, where Ouiser promptly tucked it under her belly. I lifted Vera out, gave her some pets, might have kissed her on the head but you can't prove that, and she was on her way. This is the long way of saying that I know Ivy's egg was in the lower box, and I'm pretty certain the blue-green egg layer has to be one of the ravens because they have the possibility of having had Easter Egger moms. Since Ouiser was firmly planted in the top box, I gotta believe this newest bluest egg is hers. When it's warmer and finally time to go throw seeds around, I will be able to monitor the nest boxes more closely. But my money's on Ouiser.