How Does Your Garden Grow?

mary, mary, quite contrary

how does your garden grow?

with silverbells and cockshells

and pretty maids all in a row

an old classic nursery rhyme that i found myself singing yesterday as i was wandering the beginnings of our garden and imagining what could be .... and while we may not have these beautiful cottage flowers yet, we do have the staples and backbone of a good plant infrastructure growing ....

the first potato in our straw pile peaking it's head through .....

 top down view of the pea's coming up at the base of the pea tree structure ....

Comfrey .... it's growing in several places and will be used, along with lavender

and other bushy herbs to create borders around future mandala's ....  where do you start with
expounding the value of comfrey?  with it's deep rooting systems that bring up
all those wonderful nutrients from far down in the soil ... it's truly a great

crop for any number of important sustainable systems!

<sigh>  broad beans in all their glory.  i can't sign the praises enuf of these glorious 

creatures.  i tried something that i saw on a River Cottage episode

the other night and snipped the tops out just as they were starting to bloom ....

he promised that it would dramatically increase the flowers (and as such, the beans!)

.... cam back a few days later and i was amazed at the number of flowers!

woohoo! i have at least three large patches planted!  and have been using them as
green manure as well.

my personal sense of satisfaction is huge, to say the least.  i feel like we are making small, yet significant steps towards a wonderful future .... and these early spring flourishes are fabulous at reminding us to be committed to the adventure ahead!