It is April already!!!

It seems quite strange to just now be getting out into the garden this year! I had a four month job developing a huge website with no time for fun free-time activities, let alone for the garden or normal chores. So, here I am checking out my yard to see how my precious plants have survived this very long cold and hard winter.

Many plants are bursting out with new life. Yea! We have had a couple gorgeous days and the honey bees are very busy in my gardens. I sure wish everything had been pruned before this. I am doing some catch-up pruning of vines and other over-due chores.

A few invaders have decided to take over where my mulch has been utilized by the microherd and is almost showing the soil now. Well it would be showing soil if the oxalis and cleavers hadn't filled in these places. So, I have spent 5 hours over a few days earlier in the week pulling out these two invaders who thought they were 'home free' in my gardens. No, it is not gone, not by a long shot, but several beds are looking good enough to get another layer of mulch for this season or even the year depending on sun exposure and how fast it breaks down.

Yesterday, my friend Nina gave me a bunch of boysenberries canes ready to plant; that were in need of being planted soon. So, today, instead of continuing my battle with the invaders in fully developed beds, I developed a new berry bed. I had been thinking about starting this bed for the last year. This bed is on the west side of the yard and is next to the raspberry bed. The soil is nice in this new bed which hadn't grown anything productive for years. Many years ago it used to be my main vegetable garden; now abandoned for the wooden raised vegetable beds I built towards the back of my property. These beds have lasted for 25 years. This year I will need to replace a board or two on a couple of them, but the redwood has held up quite well over the years.

Back to the boysenberries. So, I got 4 canes planted before it was time to call it quits today. Tomorrow the rest will be planted and I will come up with a structure to support the new plants. My friend Kim was such a help today, she is a hard worker. Working with a buddy is very inspirational. The time flies by that way.

Ever wonder why gardeners are always such a happy group??? Well, there is a bacteria in the soil that actually generates Serotonin in our brains. It is said that this works better than Prozac and we have all heard about a town where the citizens went on Prozac to be happy.  So one of the best things about gardening is the concept of being sustainable by growing food, having a beautiful garden bed full of life, getting some good exercise and vitamin D and a good shot of Serotonin that makes us happy. What else could we need?

I will add boysenberry pictures tomorrow, as it is pitch black now.