Tabula Rasa

A blank slate -- that's what the garden is just now. Freshly tilled box beds that will eventually overflow (thinking positively here) with slim green trellised cucumbers, shiny deep purple eggplants, Brussels sprouts, collards, kale, rainbow chard, broccoli, peppers, sweet and hot -- no, that all won't fit in these few boxes -- but there are six more tiers in the garden . . .

The banties' chicken tractor has been moved to sit atop the asparagus bed for a few weeks -- just until the first green spears break through. We hope that the biddies will eat the eggs or larvae of the asparagus beetles that have plagued us the past few years. We know they'll fertilize the soil.

It's really fun, having the banties right there. They are curious and companionable little creatures and I enjoy watching them scratch around in the great piles of fresh green chickweed and henbit that I pulled out of the beds, preparatory to John's tilling them.

The spring time energy I spoke of in yesterday's post is flowing! Crocuses are blooming along with the earliest of daffodils and I planted a few red onion sets, along with some romaine lettuce -- seed left over from last year so it may or may not do. But rain is predicted and I just wanted something in the ground!

The unpromising looking stuff in the picture below is horseradish -- another welcome sign of coming Spring.