up and up

My parsley came up yesterday! Doesn't look like much yet- little loops of stem unfolding.

More plants in the yard I am happy to see again- the mayapples I transplanted across the very back edge a year or two ago-

Lysimachia-

Pulled back some leaves to see the little shoots of late boneset-

Wild geranium trimmings I stuck in the ground various places the year before- are growing! (this one next to some ajuga)

And I'm trying to change how I feel about this plant- I now think it's some kind of fleabane, a native plant that provides early blooms for pollinators. There's a few clumps of it in the lawn that have annoyed me by coming back persistently every year- and they grow pretty fast after getting mowed over. I dug up and moved several into an area in the back around base of a shade tree- where I'd rather have something else not the yellow salvia anymore.

rescued unknowns

I weeded the beet and carrot beds. There were quite a few seedlings I felt I ought to know- and I saved some of them in seedling trays to let them grow out a bit more, see if I can identify and want to plant elsewhere. I feel pretty sure these ones with broader cotyledons are the plant I think is shiso-

This one looks like it might be wild geranium? or some other flower

and these ones I have a hunch are a flower from plants I had in bed 9

Anyhow they're in the mini greenhouse for a while now, not looking so great with the shock of being pricked out

but I hope will recover so I can figure out what I want to do with them.

cold nights

again. I go out in the evening to cover the lettuces and chards with small cloches, and bring the tomato plants (and a few others) inside for the night. Most of them are now too tall for my screen boxes to protect

so I'm glad I found someone else giving away an old animal cage- much larger than the other one I have! which I took off the base and can just set over all the plants (to protect from my cat).

It just makes me so happy and content to see them growing and healthy.

things emerging

I take more walks around the yard, admiring the new green shoots and unfurling leaves, happy to recognize some, puzzling over others (I've forgotten so many names and appearances). 

Young leaves on my hybrid maple:

I love seeing the ostrich ferns arise! (though do need to pull weeds here)

I'm pretty sure this is obedient plant 

Glad that much of the little sedums I moved over here when took out the remains of the stump in the front yard (where this pretty little redbud is now growing!)

are still here- mixed thickly with violets in this spot-

here's a fuller stand of it-

I know this is a flowering plant I put here on purpose- the taller stems among the violets- but I can't remember what it is, or what it looks like blooming

This one I distinctly remember transplanting as well- catmint?

Since this turned into a walk down the 'sunny' sideyard, here's the last plant to show: my hollies! They grew a lot this past year. The one on the left (with a chunk of old stump under it) is much shorter- gets less light

The one on the right is taller than me now!

spring flowers!

tulips (a few days ago)

and now-

spring beauty 

bleeding hearts emerging 

Camellia!

For the longest time I didn't know what this flower was coming up through my spiderwort, 

but I found out this week that it's Virginia bluebell!

There's grape hyacinths in the backyard scattered here and there

and violets everywhere.

Soon I will also have lily of the valley,

Lungwort:

Lots of hellebores this year:

and that's enough pictures for now

more edibles

I have found another way I like the hairy bittercress: on crackers with a spread (in this case, fish roe something that my husband bought).

While walking around the yard the other day I took a ton of photos, trying to remember once again if certain plants are desirable to keep or should I pull them up. Found to my surprise that there's more edible weeds in our yard! Apparently curly dock

chickweed

and henbit (not pictured) are all nutritious.

Of course, I will be more sure of an actual ID before I sample any of them.

garden update

I thinned beets today.

I started replacing straw mulch on some of the beds- a very light layer, not even a half inch thick- will add more when the plants are bigger. Around the collard greens

and tokyo bekana

and chard.

I have a lot more peas now-

though still all mostly on one side (the left of the 'L' bottom edge- top half of this bed, viewed from the deck, is tatsoi and lettuces).

I didn't put any around the turnips- they still seem too small

some are rather close together but perhaps I will eat them young.

Two bunches of leeks are in the middle of the turnips. Came up on their own.

And a surprise in the greenhouse- on a whim I had stuck that sprouting almond in a pot, weeks ago. I'ts now growing leaves!