Spring fever

Spring fever has hit central IL.  Funny how it gets around 40* in the winter, and everyone thinks it is warm.  :)  It is just the opposite in the fall...we think we are freezing at that temperature.  Today the forecast is calling for 47* and mostly sunny with temps rising to 61* by Friday.  It is hard to believe that not quite two weeks ago we were experiencing a blizzard with 12 inches of snow!  Even with the warmer weather and the melting snow, everything is still covered in a blanket of white.  I had a dream that my chives were sprouting the other night.  Let the gardening dreams begin.
The lettuce seeds have not yet sprouted.  They should take 10-14 days, so I have up to another week to go.  I keep checking for that little bit of green....

Finally, no rain!

Spring in Illinois this year has been atypical. Usually we go straight from heat to A/C. This spring has been exceptionally wet and cool. We have had flood warnings every day for as long as I can remember and last night it got down to 38 degrees. It has been consistently in the 40's at night. It is very hard to plant under these conditions.

Today was nice, so Bill and I got 48 tomato plants and 15 pepper plants planted as well as my very late onions. I had been potting up the tomatoes and peppers along the way, so they look very healthy. I am disappointed to get the onions in so late, but better late than never. As usual, I have tons of tomato and pepper plants left over. I would plant them, but I am running out of room. Darn!!

We did a lot of weed control with newspaper and straw between the beds. We are hoping for a much less weedy garden this year. With all that we do outside of gardening, it is amazing how quickly the weeds can overtake the garden! We speak from experience.

Beautiful day and observations

Today is a beautiful day! We have had so much rain again lately. I haven't been able to get into the garden at all. The ground is great for weed pulling though, and goodness knows that there are plenty of those!

Just looking around at the yard recently, I made a few observations.

• The crab apple didn't really bloom this spring and neither did the forsythia.
• The lilacs bloomed and are drying up already. I didn't even get a chance to enjoy them.
• The asparagus is almost finished.
• My apricot irises are blooming.
• The birds are nesting in a frenzy. I have found robin and dove eggs.
• My knockout roses did not do well over the winter and had to be cut almost all of the way to the ground. They seem to be recovering well though.
• We had a couple of blossoms on our Wolf River apple but not the honeycrisp. The wolf river is one year older.
• No blooms on the peaches, but a couple on the cherry tree.
• The columbine that I planted last year from seed is double in size and looks great. My hydrangeas seem to be doing better this year. I almost killed them a couple of years ago by putting too much lime on them.
• I have two resident bunnies in my garden. They have been feasting on my Green Goliath broccoli prompting the placement of chicken wire around the raised bed. Of note, they don't seem to care as much for the Romanesco Italia variety.
• The strawberries seem to have survived. They were almost decimated by something last year. Don't know what, but I thought for sure we would have to replant the whole bed. There are plenty of blooms coming on so far.
• Everything seems to getting taken over by a weed that I have never seem so much of before. It like to spread out, I know that much! It is in the lawn and the flower beds and garden.

Great Day to Work Outside

Today was a great day to work outside. It was breezy, cool, and overcast. I mowed the lawn, worked in the flower bed, transplanted peppers and tomatoes, and planted seeds.
I have definitely decided after today that not all plant starts from neighbors are a good thing. I received a start of a plant that my neighbor said, "only gets about so high and has pretty yellow flowers on it". Having never seen this plant in her yard before (now I know why), I planted it. The first year, it grew at least 5-6 feet tall. This was not a small plant. This year, it is threatening to take over my flower bed! I pulled so many of those plants today, it was not even funny! This thing is invasive!! The bad part is, I think that it may spread by roots also. I had a devil of a time getting them out. Finally, I started just yanking the plants. I will have to keep an eye on them for regrowth. Lesson learned.
My peppers and tomatoes finally got transplanted today to bigger pots. I should have done this weeks ago. It is still supposed to drop into the 40's at night, so I don't feel comfortable planting them out yet. I had them out to harden off a bit though. I have so many! They will probably end up like zucchini and I will have problems giving them away!
Finally, I planted some lettuce and radishes in the garden. The lettuce that I started a couple weeks ago is not ready to transplant yet. Again I am late starting.... We are supposed to get rain tonight and tomorrow, so the seeds should get watered in well.
I received my Mother's Day present today. A new butterfly bush. It is probably the largest one that I have ever started with. It is multi colored picked out by my girls. My husband and I planted it today also in anticipation of the rain.