[Ag-eq] Spring!

[Tracy Carcione]

Spring is finally coming to New Jersey!  The flowers are starting to do 
their thing, and I'm headed out to the garden as soon as I'm off work.
The peach tree is blooming.  It's a beautiful little tree.  Right now, it's 
got lots of little pink flowers.  After that, it puts out long, narrow, 
graceful leaves.  Last year, all the fruit dried up and fell off before it 
got ripe.  I'm fertilizing it this year, and hoping for better results.
The blueberries and raspberries are leafing out, and the blueberries have 
plenty of buds.
I've put out some cabbage and broccoli seedlings, and I'm going to put out 
lettuce seedlings maybe today, plus plant more lettuce, spinach, carrots and 
radishes. Then I gotta protect the lot from Mr Rabbit.

I made a big mistake last fall.  I was putting in new grass out front, and 
my landscaper said there was extra dirt, so I told her to put it on the 
raised bed.  But the dirt was full of grass seed, which came up.  I left it, 
thinking it would be a good cover crop, but it was hard to turn in this 
spring, and it's not breaking down very well.  So I have extra work to do, 
either burying it more, or removing the big clumps.

I'm making an experiment with no-mow grass this year.  I planted it in areas 
that are hard to drag the mower to, and, if it works well, I'll expand. 
It's a mix of low-growing grasses, clover and flowers.  I'm excited about 
it.  Hope it actually works as advertised.
I'm also working with my landscaper to put in a small pond.  Neither of us 
has done a pond before, so it's taking a while to figure out.  So, between 
the pond site and the grass-seeding, my yard has a lot of large mud patches 
right now.  But, if these things work, it will be great!

I'm planting fava beans again this year.  I think they're real neat. 
They're as big as a chickpea, and taste like peas, but the bushes are a lot 
sturdier than peas.  They like cool weather, so I hope to get some in this 
week.
I also bought some heirloom runner beans to try.  One is called Scarlet 
Emperor.  It gets 10 feet tall, and has purple beans and red flowers, if I 
remember right.  I love pole beans.  They're very easy to care for; there's 
no bending to harvest; and they're delicious.  And these new ones sound nice 
enough that I just might put them out front.
I'm also trying a new potato, German Butterball.  Last year, I tried Russian 
Banana.  It was nice, but the yield wasn't as much as I'd hoped for.
Anyway, I'm very happy Spring is here, and I'm headed out to dig in the 
dirt!
Tracy