Blog – The Glory of Gardens

This time of the year is always so interesting to me as I seem to know quite a few Tauruses born around this time or I have those that are having anniversaries around this time. So, today, I celebrate all those lovely Taurus’s out there as they have incarnated to be steady, steadfast, determined to keep going, nurturing, and show us what is lovely and simple about earth.
Taurus is the time of gardens and so this time of the year, I always think of this earth sign, and as I put my gardening gloves on and begin digging into the moist soil. My garden is coming together. I have begun putting into small plants into the large pots in my garden. So far, I have the San Marzano’s and the Early Girl tomatoes, the Japanese cucumbers, and the tomatillos replanted and ready to go.
In my greenhouse, I have the green and red sweet peppers to do next, the jalapenos, and the pumpkins.
I am finally finishing eating my delicious Delicata squashes from last year and the seeds will go shortly into the pots. They are very hearty and don’t need much TLC.
My leeks are in from last year, my garlic is almost ready, and carrots are coming out my ears. It is so lovely to live in a place where you can really grow most of the year certain things.
I had volunteer sugar snap peas that came up and are already 4 feet tall. I expect a bumper crop as the blooms are already happening.
I am going to have to replant my broccoli. Waves of birds came through as it was coming up and they decided that it was very tasty as a salad for their meals of seeds.
Irises our gloriously out in full bloom. My tree peony exploded gloriously early and then we had a cold snap with heavy rain, and it did not like that very much as the the blooms were so big and heavy they ended up with their heads in the mud but the regular peony’s are just coming in. So, they should be an explosion of color shortly.
I still have much to do in the garden. Gardens are always a work in progress. And we are still trying to limb up the trees and get all the burning done before we are not allowed to burn because of the fire season.
In the upper garden, I need to get all the weeds out that came in from the winter rains and tame back the blackberry bushes that threaten to take over everything. But the bees are so happy with the flowers that I just don’t have the heart to cut them back right now. Best to give the wild bees a chance to build up their stores while they can.
Hummingbirds came in a flood and then shockingly decided that this was not their final spot. It was sad. I love to have throngs of hummingbirds during the spring and summer. They make my heart happy. At least they had a lovely stopover and break before they continued north.
The weather is still cool but sunny. I am grateful for the long, wet winter. But I can feel that the heat is coming and so it is time to make sure the garden is ready to explode with color and fruits.
Learning to work with the plants and the land has been a tremendous learning curve for me but the more I understand the better the results. I love that here the schools teach gardening to the students. I think every child should have the opportunity to feel empowered by knowing where and how to produce food. The world would be a much better place if we all learned to be more self-sufficient.
Have a wonderful day.

~Suzanne Wagner~