Veggie Prep.

4-19-12 VERMONT: Two more dry and sunny days. We do need rain. Yesterday and this morning I did the prep of the veggie beds. I took the black plastic mulch and the soaker hoses off the beds, added soil to fill holes after weeding and removing all the old corn and tomato stumps.

Janet had left us a big pile of llama poop last fall, enough to cover the beds to about one or two inches—a much appreciated blessing. After a final raking and grading, I replaced the the soakers and then the mulching, reversing the positions of the corn and tomatoes. After stapling the plastic mulch in place, I replaced the fencing and electric wires. We’re ready for corn seeds and tomato plants in May.

This afternoon I moved some daylilies from beds where they were becoming intrusive to the beds behind the pond to join the others already there. A little weeding and pruning and it’s a full day. NJ tomorrow.

New blooms: star magnolia, gill-over-the-ground.


First daffodil here, weeks after the first in NJ.

A bunch of fresh frog eggs and three bullfrog tadpoles. These big tadpoles can take up to three years to mature into adults. Do you think these three are baby sitting or eating?