How do you know it's almost summer? The rain is warmer.

It's rainy. VERY soggy, wet, and rainy. There really is no point to cleaning the floors when you have this mud monster traipsing around outside. I think she relishes the squawks of ker-sloshing mud chickens as she runs around and around their pen.

But, the weather has been good to my plants. I'm a bit disappointed to have not yet planted many seedlings, my heat-loving plants in particular, such as tomatoes, melons, squashes, and beans. Hopefully, the beans (and maybe summer squash)will go in this weekend. My melons and winter squash will be started indoors soon.

The current plants love the weather.

My "Just Joey" rose is blooming. The scent is intoxicating and the rose is supremely splendid. I am reminded why this rose is my favorite whenever I walk by it.

My garlic is getting LARGE. I suspect I will not be able to harvest it for some time (1+ months, at least), so their girth makes me very happy. I hope that it is a sign of LARGE garlic heads and cloves.

Close up shot of the garlic.
The 150+ strawberry plants are also doing very well. There are ample blooms and many small strawberries.
But oh, my chickens. They are soggy. I finally threw a tarp over part of their area today. They don't seem to mind the muddiness, but I do. Poor things. I hadn't tarped their area for the past month because I kept thinking "the rain has to be almost over." I'm hoping that now that I finally did tarp their area, Mother Nature will laugh at me and make the weather pretty.

Look at our grass! Obviously, it LOVES this weather. We will be purchasing a bit more grass in the next few days, mostly because the weather is perfect for laying grass (yes, mucky and miserable).


The spinach is pretty darn happy too. This is the patch AFTER I harvested about 2 gallons of spinach yesterday. We couldn't eat that much so quickly, so I froze 4 baggies worth. The next batch, I will blanch first. I'm trying to see what works better. Supposedly, you should blanch them first, but I hate that the leaves will lose so many nutrients (because you're blanching them then you will cook them again when you use them).

From left to right: cauliflower, mesclun mix lettuce, buttercrunch lettuce, and arugula. YUM!

My potatoes have officially gone nuts. I need to add some more height to the potato beds and then stuff them with straw. Yes, I will have to buy more straw. Dang it! I'd use dirt, but that is so tough to get in there without messing up plants.


My peas are all loving the weather. The snow (flat, 100% edible) and green arrow peas (to shell and eat the peas) are each 2-2.5' tall. My sugar snap (round, 100% edible) peas are 5-5.5' tall! Craziness.

The mulch is doing a good coverage job. There are a few weeds poking through. I'll either pull them or I'll spray them with vinegar. Thing is, it needs to be not rainy in order to spray with vinegar. With the weather right no, no spraying will occur.


Another shot of my crazy peas. Look at all those flowers! And they are just beginning to flower.

I must say, I'm really glad I made the trellises 6' tall.

And, finally, my carrot bed has germinated! Look at all of them!
More of the carrot sprouts.


Things to do: The slugs are LOVING this weather, so I need to get them drunk. Supposedly, pans of Pabst Blue Ribbon are a slug's dream, so I'll be buying some cheap PBR soon and setting the pans out. It's a pretty nice way to go: death by drowning in beer. Thing is, I must keep Maddie away from the beer. Drunk dog= no fun. I'm thinking about how exactly to accomplish this. She's a curious little thing.