February teased us with an early spring and we probably put out a
few things too early, of which some succumbed to last week's deep
chill (some potatoes and onions). But fortunately, we mostly held
off spring planting until this past week, seeding and transplanting,
and yesterday's rain watered it all in nicely. Now that the soil is
moist, we have more plants to set out. It's always encouraging to
transform bare garden beds to neat green rows. Just a few days ago,
the first of our setting hens hatched a clutch of the duck eggs we
had put under her. Eric has started grafting fruit trees. The cows
are happy to be eating some new spring grass. Our bee numbers are
down -- too much rain during the main nectar flows last year which
was hard on the bees -- but the bees we have had plenty of good
flying weather already this year and are off to a strong start.
Swarm season has already started, and the main honey flow will
probably begin in less than a month. And yesterday we had a
wonderful afternoon visit to our gardening friends in Rutherford
County. We came back inspired and with more new plants to add to
the farm.
