It’s Spring in St. Lou and though there is a slight chill to the air, the temperature is climbing and flowers are just starting to bloom. And you know what that means?

It means my blog posts for the next four months will probably be devoted to pics of flowers or vegetables from our yard and garden.

We’ve spent the last two weekends cleaning out the dead leaves and brush from the flower beds. We pile it into the vegetable garden and burn it. The ashes add nutrients to the soil.

Last year I had saved seeds from our last cucumber so we planted those last Sunday in a potting tray. The photo to the right is how they looked yesterday…just one week later! And that’s just from sitting on the kitchen counter in the sunshine. No grow light. No fertilizer. Just water, soil, and sun.

Two days ago we saw our first bloom of the year!  Just some tiny daffodils but they are a welcome sign of sprint and a nice pop of color in the yard that’s been covered in a blanket of brown or white for the past few months.

I planted lots of new bulbs last Fall so I’m excited to see those already coming up. Unfortunately, the rabbits are excited too and have already taken advantage of the fresh salad bar in our yard. Some of the new shoots have already been nibbled back to the ground! I made a trip to one of our local nurseries yesterday to buy more daffodils to plant around them as a deterrent. Daffodils are toxic to rabbits so they won’t eat them. I also put out some rodent repellent hoping that might keep the rabbits away too and give the new plants a fighting chance to grow and bloom.

This year we are making plans to add a bean house to the garden, extending the garden another four feet. A bean house is a trellis made from PVC pipe and wire.  We’ll plant green beans and cucumbers to grow over it. This keeps the vegetables off the ground and away from rabbits and also makes them easier to pick.

Besides planting the garden and a few potted flowers along the pathway, we are hoping to keep the outdoor projects to a minimum this year. We’ll see how that goes once summer arrives!