The following two paragraphs are copied from Kitchen Garden Seeds. I’m on their email list and get messages fairly frequently. Perusing seed catalogs in print or online is a time honored winter and early spring tradition for most gardeners.

Raised Beds with Hoops for Plastic Covering
At the moment my raised are filled with lettuce, kale, and chard. Definitely winter produce, and because of the cold they are growing very slowly.
The sparrows were decimating the peas, they haven’t been able to get a start because of the foraging birds. I found some old netting in the garage and that seems to be giving them a helping hand. I won’t wait as long next year to wrap some netting around them.

Snap Peas with Netting
We spent a day digging out redwood roots from one of the raised beds. This is a chore that has to be done once a year to each bed as the trees and their roots are very aggressive. There were some sore backs after the job was completed. It made me wish for that hot tub we keep meaning to purchase.

Raised Bed Minus Redwood Roots
I’ve started some seeds in seed trays.

Seeds – lettuce, chard, kale, cilantro

Salvia and Alonsoa
The tangerine color of the Geum flowers mirror the leaves of the Heuchera, both shown off by the dark foliage of the Anthriscus. All the Geums have just started blooming like crazy, they do very well here and I consider them one of the most successful plants in the garden. Everything has to be able to put up with the competition of the redwood roots.
The first rhododendron is in bloom, it’s a bushy yellow one. I think the variety is ‘Top Banana’ but I’m not sure.

I think this is:Rhododendron ‘Top Banana’
And the first dahlia shoots are showing.

First Dahlia Emerging in the Spring
It will be another few weeks before most of the emerge. It’s a tricky time when the snails and slugs can ravage them.

Banana Slugs
Here are two pictures of the pollinator meadow, 2019 and 2020. Late last fall we mowed all the plants in and this year we will see how it changes. I’ll add side by side pictures each month for comparison.
- Wildflower and pollinator garden April 2019
- Wildflower and pollinator garden April 2020
If you would like to take a look at the garden last year at this time, you will find the link here. We had a lot more rain last winter season than this one. In fact almost twice as much as this year. I fear that, without a lot of early spring rain, we are headed into a drought.
And lastly, while I have been digging in the raised bed and putting in new plants, the dogs have been busy doing their own excavations. They have completely dug up a portion of the yard in search of a allusive gopher or mole.

Major Gopher Excavation

I know it’s here somewhere
There must be a whole colony from the looks of it.

Examining a Days Work
Definitely a tunnel here.
Stay well everyone, stay safe. Let me know how your garden is doing. Right now I call it my therapy.
Use to be a favorite when I was ordering seeds – way back to Rene. I have her cookbooks which reminds me of the fun times searching through her catalog for new varieties to try 🙂
It’s as good as perusing a new cookbook! Dreaming…