This Week in the Garden: April 15, 2025
Spring is Fully Underway
Spring is fully underway and the garden is coming alive with energy. The trees are leafing out and the garden feels more full and peaceful as they do. The fruit trees are in bloom in the orchard. The spinach, potatoes, and onions are pushing through the soil and volunteer cosmos are popping up in cracks here and there where the wind blew last year’s seeds. I love spring. It’s a season of surprise and renewal, and it feels like the garden itself is stretching and yawning awake. It’s funny how 74 degrees can feel like a blazing 94 after the long chill of winter. Layers of heavy shirts or jackets are shed as we readjust to warmth.
The Garden Tool Shed
The garden tool shed is finally complete and I’m quite happy with how it turned out. After two coats of paint (the first one was a robins egg blue that was way too bright), it now stands finished and tucked into a corner of the garden next to the raised bed area. Soon, the Lady Banks rose will be trained to grow over the shed, smothering it and the pergola above in soft green leaves and white blossom. I can already picture the way the rose will drape itself over the roof, turning the shed into a living, blooming part of the garden landscape.
The garden tool shed I built to fit just under the long, narrow pergola and between the privacy screen and raised bed for a Lady Banks rose.
The Greenhouse Arrives & Assembly Begins!
The greenhouse has officially arrived and assembly is underway! The quality looks good and I think the finished product will be a nice. However, the hardware is very small and quite a fuss and fiddle. It’s 8’ tall, 10’ wide, and 26’ long. It should provide plenty of room for propagation, extending the growing season with raised beds, and plenty of other greenhouse activities! Not to mention a bit of a privacy screen along our western flank. I’m looking forward to benches filled with trays of seedlings and cuttings with the soft glow of late winter/early spring afternoon light streaming through the panels. With every step closer to completion, it feels like a whole new chapter of gardening is about to begin!
Rhubarb!
The rhubarb is looking great and the first pickings have been cleaned, cut and stored. I’m looking forward to strawberry rhubarb jam, rhubarb pie, and all the other ways you can eat it! 😁. Monty says he eats it stewed and on yogurt. I wonder how that tastes? It's amazing how quickly the patch filled out once the weather warmed up. The early harvest is a great reminder of how rewarding perennial crops can be; year after year, the rhubarb comes back stronger and more generous.
