Proof That There Are Still Living Things In My Garden

Someone asked me how the garden was doing yesterday so I thought I'd share a little update on the state of things out back. I half expected the birds and squirrels to destroy my hard work but after gleaning the strawberries they've kind of left it alone. Every now and then I'll see where a squirrel started digging but they must have short attention spans. I have yet to get that netting situation taken care of but my raspberries are starting to form so it will have to be soon. No way I'm losing those to the birds.

Speaking of raspberries, they are growing faster than anything else out there with bright new leaves every day. The young berries are forming underneath those buds.

Our pear tree didn't produce last year save for a single pear, which I thought was odd. This year it looks like we'll have another huge crop so I'll have to haul a few people out there to shake the branches into a sheet so they don't spoil on the ground. We gave away bag fulls our first Fall and still there were thumps every half hour or so as a pear would hit the roof and bounce to the ground. The squirrels, birds, and bees loved feeding on them and we raked the rotten fruit into a big pile to compost. It sure smelled sweet out there. If you have any pear recipes send them my way!

The plant that has been taking it's sweet time is the broccoli. I've got six plants and only two of them have shot up with one of those being chewed on by something. Caterpillars? Next week I'm going to have to take out a few things that have shriveled up and replace them with more strawberry plants. I don't think we'll ever get tired of strawberries.

I've got an old refrigerator drawer than I've been using as a planter sitting next to my raised bed. I planted extra onions in it but there was lots of room so when the helicopter seeds from my huge tree in the backyard flew down into the bed they took root and shot up over night. I've weeded them all out of the raised bed but decided to leave a few in the smaller one to see what they can do. They sure are potent fellas!

What about you? How does your garden grow? Have you been surprised with early blooms or is it still too soon to tell?

xoxo,
Rachel

p.s. The top photo is my little herb garden. The chamomile must've grown five inches overnight!