Hands in the Dirt

This year my goal is to have my hands in the dirt as much as possibly.
I can feel the dirt calling to me. ....

Last weekend I worked in one of our smaller gardens.

My garlic that I planted last Fall is coming up.  It's beautiful. It just makes me feel good to see those green stems coming out of the ground. Thanks to Anna Hart for giving me the garlic heads to plant.  I fretted all winter as to whether they would actually grow.  So far, so good.

My chives are also coming up.  They continue to grow each year even though they were supposed to be an annual plant.

I begin to work on turning the dirt.  It is cool to the touch and crumbles easily in my hand.  Such a great feeling.

I bend over to pick up a pile of pine needles that have gathered at the base of my chive.  I pick the pile up and throw it over the garden fence and into the common ground.  As I throw them out, I notice movement.  I look down and realize it is a nest of some sort.  I run into the house and ask Jim to please come and look  He walks down and immediately recognizes it as a bunny nest.

Bunny nest under the chives

Note:  This is actually on Easter day.

The nest in inside my garden area.  What to do?

Jim gives me a couple of options and goes back into the house.  I finally decide that I can dig underneath the baby bunnies and scoop them out.  I have to be careful though not to hit the babies with the shove.

They squeal as I jostle them.  I look down the hill toward the bush in the common ground and see "Momma Bunny" .

I actually had a vision of her turning into a giant bunny and attacking me.  Can you say "It's just a harmless little bunny....?"

I relocate the bunnies with mo problem.  I move them to an area where I have seen the momma bunny  and cover them with the same pine needles from the original nest.  There are 4 of them and they are so newly born, their eyes are not open yet.   I am hopeful that momma will find them and protect them.

I go back to the garden and put rocks in front of the hole where I think the rabbit was entering.
Fingers crossed.

Now, onto planting. I continue to till the ground to prepare it for planting.  I have radishes and carrots.  I am starting out small so I only plant a couple rows of radishes and a couple rows of carrots. I've read that the radishes will harvest in about 30 days and the carrots in about 70 days.

Happy, happy!


Next, I have herbs to plant.  I have purchased a few of the ones I have wanted.

Rosemary
Lemon Thyme
Peppermint
Spearmint


I am trying to keep my herbs in small planters on the back deck this year so I can walk out and easily snip them as I need them. Last year I had to walk out the door, down the stairs and down the hill to get to them.

This is just the beginning of what I believe will be a great growing year.

I get them all replanted but I have chosen to keep the herbs inside for a couple more weeks.  They have a spot in front of a large window where they get lots of morning sun.

Each morning I check on them and each morning I see them doing their morning yoga stretches, reaching toward the sun.  Beautiful!  Can't wait to plant more!



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