As it is about mid-April, I think it’s time we do a little bit of a tour of the garden. Kind of a Before, though, technically some things have already happened. But just to give you an impression of what everything looks like at the moment. Now in April.

First big thing that has already happened is, of course, the greenhouse. And I just built a shelf so everything’s ready for me to start using it. I put carpet down on the bottom just to get the grass a little bit smothered and we’ll see if I actually plant in the ground in there. I don’t currently think so. I think it’s better to use containers in the greenhouse but we’ll see about that. Anyway it’s up, it’s standing and it has survived the first storm.

Pepper is slowly getting used to animals in the garden. He now only chases toward them when they surprise him.

The chickens are happily weeding away and hopefully they’ll make some progress. I’ll have to put them back in when I leave because they can’t be unattended. But as I was here for about two hours I decided to let them out to weed for a little bit.

Yeah, anyway, the potato bed is looking exactly the way it did. But we’re gonna get the potatoes in the ground soon. And I’ve decided to put the second half as an Irish bed, assuming I can get that all done with the shovel. But that’s the plan now.

The rest of the beds are a mess. I also spotted some horsetail which scares gardeners here a lot. They all told me to kill the entire bed for the year. So, I did some research. It will be just fine. I am not worried about them.

It has been far too wet for far too long. The garlic and onions are suffering a bit from too much water. Like me, they’ll need the rain to stop.

As you can see, most of the garden is still a big mess of weeds and overgrown stuff, but we’re gonna figure that out soon. First of all, they’re gonna be goats and sheep doing some of the weeding, and then we’ll slowly, one after the other, do the beds as we need them.

The gap that connects my gardens is tiny. I’ll probably open that a bit soon. I need to be able to get the cart through here. And with the fence, that’s now not a big deal.

There is still a lot to get done in the food forest but we’re gonna do that little by little. The important part for now is getting things into the main garden.

We can deal with the food forest when there’s a lull–and anywhere in between when I’m hiding from people.

In here, all the wood paneling has to be removed but, to be honest, I don’t think we’re gonna get that done before there is some lull, and I’m bored because it’s just not important, and there are so many more important things to get done. And, I mean, we’re not really spending time in here yet anyway…

But there are going to be two little couches that our neighbors are getting rid of that are going to be in here. Just in case anyone wants to hang out or it starts to rain when we’re in the garden and we don’t feel like going home yet.

The cherry tree next to the walnut is blossoming. And the currant bushes are starting to develop fruit already.

There is still a ginormous trash pile but I am getting help with that soon.

This area will hopefully also get some visits from the sheep because I really don’t feel like trimming it. But if we need to, I’ll trim all of this down and make sure that the raspberries–blackberries. That the blackberries are only where they’re supposed to be.

And then there’s my least favorite area, the stupid second hut that I still need to get down there somehow. I don’t know how, but not a priority. I mean, I would like to use that for water storage, but it’s not an option right now because the roof isn’t coming down. So I was kind of hoping it would just come down. But so far that hasn’t happened.

Pepper, come on. Let’s go home.

And with that, we’ve finished the tour of the gardens. But there was one task left: Returning all these feathered friends.

Last order of business: get the chicken and sheep and goats back into the pen, so I can close up. I have never done this. I don’t know how to herd chickens. It didn’t help that I’d opened the “wrong” door. So, I opened their usual door, and the process went more smoothly. I counted the larger animals, then left. They were confused I didn’t feed them. Okay, all the ladies are back in, so I can go home.

When I look at this, I see a lot of work. I also see all the potential for this season.

At home, it was time to deal with dinner. An audiobook anchored my exhausted brain. While the meat cooked, I fed the kefir grains that make my delicious sour cream.

I seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder, then added potatoes. As so often, my canned potatoes are making this much easier. I’ll soon have to make more again. I also used bean I’d canned myself.

Speaking of things I made myself: I think I never mentioned that I made these plates. I took a pottery class while we lived in New Zealand. These and Pepper’s bowl were the result.

The next day was a relaxed one with a long forest walk to check on morels, frogs, and hops.

My husband stuck his phone into the temporary pond to check on the frog spawn. Logically, I know the phone is waterproof. Still makes me flinch every time. I grew up with phones that couldn’t do any of this. Heck, my first cell phone looked very different.

But let’s focus on the beautiful little life in here. The tadpoles have hatched!

The forest is green with edibles everywhere. We even got to harvest more hops shoots. They made a delicious addition to pasta for dinner.

So long, and thanks for being here.