Spring is Happening!

Spring has barely arrived but the garden is not wasting any time. Roses I pruned a few weeks ago already have buds on them. Bees are swarming around the lavender. Flowers I didn't know I even had have bloomed and it's just so pleasantly warm. Spring is HERE!

Oh, and - contain your excitement, folks - the artichoke is flowering.

As far as I'm concerned the artichoke is the most exciting thing going on in the garden right now. While I knew that it would take this long, part of me half expected it just to not happen at all. Maybe something would go wrong, maybe it would turn out it wasn't as happy in its spot as I thought it was, maybe I'd be unlucky... well, my fears were unfounded. Aside from the main flower there are four smaller ones and, beneath those, it looks like some smaller ones again.

As much as I love how vigorously this thing has grown, after the initial excitement wore off I have begun to miss that chunk of garden bed space. If you don't remember how much it takes up let me remind you:

For reference: chickenwire fence and baby onions.

A lot of space. Too much space. ALL of the space. Do not plant an artichoke in your regular veggie garden bed. Do you see the dense green underneath it? That's weeds I can't reach. Also some carrots it grew over the top of. A good quarter of its bulk is pressed up by the fence. From here you can't even see a hint of the flower buds, but I promise you that they are there. Wanna see?

DO YOU SEE THIS

It's beautiful! It's perfect. It's... covered in snails.

As long as the snails don't eat anything important they can stay, I'm a little unsure about when I'm supposed to harvest these - it looks like it's beginning to open, right? Who even knows!

I'll have to think fairly carefully about what to do with the plant after that, though. I don't want to rip out and destroy a perfectly (extremely) hearty plant just because I underestimated its needs - that's like sending your Christmas puppy to the pound, right? - but I'm not sure I can leave it where it is, either. It's very difficult to work around and makes accessing a lot of the bed (and the one behind it) a challenge.

It seems that the best time to move them is after the season - and that you probably should dig them up then anyway, to take care of all the shoots growing up the sides of the plant. I'll probably just leave it to its own devices for another six months, in that case, and worry about what to do with it once it's time for it to move. I wonder if I know anybody who wants to grow some of their own?

Scully digging through the weeds and looking a lot like her dino ancestors.

The girls are enjoying their outings into the rose forest and, while I'm not sure they're actually making a dent in there, it's a pleasure to watch them scratch around. They look fat and healthy and I'm starting to get excited about the prospect of them beginning to lay - we must be close, right?!

And finally, in news almost as exciting as the artichokes, some of my seed starts have sprouted.

The tomato tray has four tiny shoots peeking out, of two of the varities, though I (of course) don't quite remember which I planted on which end of the tray. There's no action yet from the chillis and watermelons next door but I'm excited to see them hopefully pop up soon.

This is my first time starting seeds inside and I felt especially lost - it seems like such a fine art when compared to just sticking some seeds in the ground and seeing what comes up. You need to mix up different quantities of special dirt ingredients, keep them watered and warm, cover them with plastic (I guess to keep that warmth and damp in?)... this was very much something I had more hoped for than expected to have much success at. But it looks like we're off to a good start after all!

I can't wait until they're big enough to go out, though there's time yet - the bed is still occupied, after all, with the last of the snow peas and the (so far completely disappointing) cauliflower. It looks like snow peas don't like the heat so I don't think they'll last long once it begins to warm up - those beds are in direct sun. I've heard peas of all sorts can grow well in quite a lot of shade, though, so I'm considering giving some a try on the shady side of the house, near the worm farm. So far I only have potato vine and my bulbs growing over there, as it only gets a little sun during the day.

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