Spring in Utah

Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. I have planned what I will plant in my vegetable garden and have already ordered and started the seed. I love getting ready for spring and the new garden. The seeds are started indoors under lights where they are warm and well protected. A couple of weeks ago I began to takes my plants outside on good days to begin to harden them off. At left are a few photos of the ones resting on my deck having their afternoon sun. I've also been so busy getting cold hardy plants into the ground. I already have peas, spinach, potatoes, scallions, parsnips and onions in the ground. In addition I've planted three new blueberry bushes. My strawberries and asparagus are up and so are my perennial herbs, chives, oregano, thyme, and tarragon. This year I've started  a variety of plants from seed, a few old favorites and a few newcomers. As always there are tomatoes (a couple of new varieties), lots of different peppers, especially the ones we use in our salsa, and my favorite annual herbs (basil, savory, sage, rosemary, marjoram and dill) . I also have started eggplant, zinnias, and a mesclun lettuce mix (new this year), and of course our favorite Walla Walla onions. The season here in Utah is not terribly long (speaking as one who lived in southern California for 25 years) only 125 days. So I won't put most of this into the ground until after Mother's Day. Some of it won't go into the garden until closer to June 1st. This week I will start my cucumbers, squash and succession crops. My trees are in bloom and so are the tulips. Spring is really here, although we did have a little snow last week. I know there will still be a little bad weather but hopefully not much!