On a "warmer" note... 72 degrees!

It's a Minnesota miracle! Or so they tell us. This was the first March on record without snow here in the now un-frozen tundra. And with the early thaw came all sorts of things I didn't expect, including a return of many residents of our herb garden. We've taken advantage of the gorgeous weather to get started on our cleaning, weeding and planting. We're trying some new things this year and learning as we go.

The golden raspberry bush, coming back to life, bringing forth lots of little babies.

Basil & cilantro in pots, because although it's been warm and although I've only lived in Minnesota a year and a half, I'm no dummy. I can bring them in if we get a cold spell. Also in the pots are arugula and swiss card seeds. In the coconut grass planter, I've transplanted some chocolate mint -- hoping it catches and does well in the hanging planter. Chocolate mint mojitos anyone?

The herb garden is reborn! The oregano, chives, sage & thyme are all doing well. And there's still hope for a curly parsley plant. To the left I've planted some lettuce beds -- Forrellenschluss and two musclun mixes.
Here's our new cherry tree. The cherries will be tart, not sweet, so with any luck, there will be lots of cherry pies, crisps, tarts and jams in the Tomback house this July. We're hoping to add a couple of plum trees in the next few weeks.

And here's the zucchini that came as a total surprise. This is exactly where it was last year, so apparently a seed from a hunk of vegetable that got left in the ground all winter decided to make a come back. Yay!

This little hard-to-see baby is one of our two new blueberry bushes. They have both been ravaged by some little fucker -- probably a rabbit. They're still alive, so I'm hoping they can rally and make it through. I've watered them like crazy and covered them with netting to prevent any further mutilation. I've also sprinkled the area liberally with fox urine pellets. Fingers crossed!

And these are my gorgeous seedlings chillin' in under the flourescent light in the workroom. I actually have two trays, and they are full of 4 varieties of tomatoes, 5 varieties of peppers, 2 kinds of eggplant and okra. Now I know what all of you are thinking -- especially the NYC crowd: Mary, are you crazy trying to grow Okra in Zone 4? Well, yes, this is perhaps a fruitless endeavor (pun completely intended). But this variety is more cold-hardy than others, and you only live once, right? So why not just throw caution to the wind and try to grow okra! This is the first year starting my own seeds, and so far, so good. With any luck at this point, I'll even have some extra plants to pass along for my neighbors' gardens.

And finally, Noah, Luke & our neighbor Symone making a frickin' disaster at the sand/water table. Totally worth the mess.