It's spring thyme!

How appropriate is it that my window garden herbs have just reached maturity the first week of spring?  I am hoping to transplant a majority of them to the garden when the danger of frosty nights has passed, but I am so happy that I finally have a place to grow them year 'round indoors.  Thanks to our new favorite room in the house, the breakfast room, which we still call the lesson room 9 out of 10 times, there is plenty of sunny window space for my herbs and seed sprouts.

Lots of fresh basil means lots of fresh pesto!

The summer squash and zucchini surprised me by flowering, though the plants are only just large enough for planting in the garden.

Campari salad tomatoes and slicing tomatoes are ready to go in the ground, too.  I think I will have to transplant them to larger pots while I wait for the official start to the growing season. 

My first successful rosemary shrub is doing well.  I usually kill my rosemary plants very quickly and never know what it is that I've done wrong.  When Christmas tree shaped bushes went on sale during the holidays for just a few dollars, I decided it was a good time to give rosemary another go.  I did lots of research and learned that a rosemary plant will go through "sudden death" from which it cannot recover.  Well, though mine began to die suddenly, I was able to save it.  This little guy has now been living in our home for four months.  He's hanging in there. 

I learned that because rosemary is a Mediterranean plant, it needs lots of sunlight.  Mine needs A LOT.  I have to rotate it, frequently, to keep it growing steadily.  Without proper rotation toward the window, it lags in growth and begins to brown again.  Watering it has been an ongoing experiment.  Most of what I read on the subject is information that suggests that a rosemary plant should be under watered and allowed to live in dry soil.  The little pamphlet that came attached to the boughs of the plant, however, stated that it needed to be kept moist.  I went with moist theory since I always followed the dry one in the past and killed my rosemary plants.  I know that because our temperatures get too low in the winter, I will never be able to plant this bush outside, unless I keep it in a container to bring back inside for the cool season, but I think I am happy with it right here, conveniently growing within a few feet of the stove for easy snipping and adding to dishes.  I'm hoping it grows large enough that we can use some of its branches for kebab skewers on the grill this summer.  Won't that be nice?!

My broccoli is ready to go in the ground, now.  It will thrive in the remaining cool days and hopefully, if I've timed it right, give us a freezer full of blanched stalks.  I have lots of seeds for more plant starts so am going to see if I can rotate my growing broccoli in different stages through the summer and fall.

Spring is in the air outside, as well. 

It may be hard to tell from these photos, but even near the city, spring is painting the landscape.

 The Grove Park Inn looks fabulous and inviting even when it's surrounded by leafless trees, but when we visited the other day, green was popping up all over.

 It was a misty morning overlooking Grove Park Inn's spa and grounds with the Asheville rooftops peaking through the clouds.  Such a relaxing spot to sit with a hot cup of coffee.

 The blazing fire pit on this still chilly morning made this view of GPI's spa.  It's a shame that no one was out to enjoy it.


Turkey Dance~Hilarious to watch the male turkeys that came out of the woods on the golf course fan their tales and parade around, slowly, in front of their potential mates.  I was a bit concerned that my children would get a first-hand lesson on the Birds and the Bees, but unfortunately for the dozens of male birds that were blustering about, the girls didn't even seem to notice that they were there, except to step around them to get to where they wanted to go.

As far as my birds on our little farm are doing, the duck is still producing an egg a day, even though she is far beyond the usual laying age.  Our little Bantam has begun laying again after months of sputtering to a stop, and she is a week older than Mrs. Bickerson, our laying duck!  So nice to get those cute little fresh eggs every day.  They are just right for breakfast when you want a little protein with your grains without eating a big meal.

So now that spring is officially here, after getting those broccoli sprouts tucked into my raised beds, I plan to finish making the patio in the area in which we were forced to jack hammer the old one up last summer to find our missing septic tank, weed and re-mulch the flower beds in the front yard, plant a new grape arbor to replace the old farm's original row that was removed when the septic system was put in, move my raspberry bushes to what will be the new orchard, build a berm and plant fast-growing trees atop it to give us more privacy from the rotten old, nosey couple we were stupid enough to buy property across the street and down the hill from (don't get me started), and whatever else I have time and energy to do over the next few months. 

It's so nice to look out the laundry room window and see the newly picket-fenced patio area that has gotten a big ol' check mark next to it on my mental To Do List and to look out back into the farmyard and realize that I've finally added enough compost to the raised beds over the years that they will not be requiring hoeing or weeding this spring.  I guess this small town hoe'r won't be doing as much hoeing in the warm season as usual.  Ah.  More star gazing and tea sippin' for me!

Happy Spring, everyone!!