Picking off squash beetles, mounding potatoes, and plucking horsetail… that is the gardening tasks this week. After cutting down the big tree to let in more sun, the limbs called themselves back to this space to create a mounding area for the potatoes. It is looking beautiful but quite difficult to keep up with. I toss wagon-ful after wagon-ful of soil, but it seems they grow at the same pace. I don’t want green potatoes! But something that is green, and quite thrilling is my slender little asparagus crop. Of course this is the first year for them, so they shall not be touched, but it is quite wonderful to envision the years to come with this wispy, spring treat. I staked the pole beans, 23 plants in all! Not to mention the 15 purple bush beans I lined some beds with. The peas seem to be growing at a very slow rate, and I wonder if I will get to taste them before the weather turns hot. This afternoon I will pluck some lettuce for the first time for our lunch… mesclun, slobolt lettuce, and a bit of spinach. Yes, the garden is giving back. It feels so good!

As for the perennials… the poppies have popped and today it appears peonies will show their sweet-scented faces too.  Vase’s of Iris and Dianthus and Lilies and everything in between, are placed inside our house and we are all marveling at their beauty.  These perennial gardens may appear to be overwhelmingly abundant to most, and that is because it is, but I am coming to truly love them.

It is our home after all.