Spring is flirting with us in Michigan these past few days. The weather has been unseasonably warm in the 60's. I took the 'girls' for a walk yesterday - today we just played in the backyard. They ran through the crocus I planted last fall, only a few were broke. I'll have to come up with an interesting fence. Today I am planting my leeks and 'Green Zebra' tomatoes inside. I am a little late on the leeks but the seed just arrived today. My neighbor tried starting the 'Green Zebra' tomatoes last year with the other tomatoes and they didn't have enough time to produce. So I thought I'd start now. I am trying a few seed trays that I had in the garden shed.
I decided to start a variety of heirloom tomatoes, leeks, Nicotiana alata (flowering tobacco) and a few French vegetables (Rouge d'Hiver Romaine lettuce, Merveilledes Quatre saisons, and Quadrato d'Asti Red Bell Pepper). This is a wink to my education of all things French. On the Michigan side of my garden, the garlic I planted last fall is coming up. I caught the 'girls' checking it out also. I think they were checking to be sure it was coming up because a few hours after I planted it - they were digging it up. (They only dig where I dig in fresh soil and never dig undisturbed soil. Interesting....) But both the hard-neck and soft-neck garlic varieties are coming through nicely. Here is Paige by the hard-neck garlic.
The soft-neck garlic is poking up also.
Here are a couple of my favorite books on garlic - 'Growing Great Garlic' by Ron L. Engeland and 'Garlic is LIfe' by Checter Aaron. The 'Growing Great Garlic is linked to a good source for both types of garlic. I do need to share two last photos of our early spring. The day in the yard with the sun shining was fun for all. I got the birdbath up and Paige has claimed it as her outside water dish...
...Bubble and Paige looking around for a ball or squirrel to chase...
As a final word for the day, 'Welcome Sunshine!'
