Well hello there. Its been a while. Winter is finally done and spring is definately here in Minnesota. I’m staring out my office window and all the trees have buds and tiny leaves bursting on the stems. it’s been raining every other day and sunshine in between, so perfect spring weather.

We over-seeded and fertilized our lawn last week, so I’m hoping the nice weather will get that grass to grow in the bare spots. If I haven’t said before, we do not water or obsess over our lawn; I water enough to keep it alive…it doesn’t really serve a purpose, why waste the expensive water and chemicals? But, there are some pretty bare spots that look a bit trashy, so I’ll do the minimum to keep it up to par with the neighbors’ perfect lawns!

My seedlings are growing nicely. I started most things much later than I usually do. My husband was even reminding me I needed to start things already! But, the cooler spring crops will be planted out this weekend I think. My chipmunk who lives under our deck took some chomps out of my kale when it was outside for a while, so I have to watch that little bugger! I started lots of beets and lettuces so will be pulling them all apart and planting the tiny seedlings also. They don’t seem to mind being manhandled too much. I also have some peas to use up, so will plant some of those too by the fences.

I decided to go back to old stand-bys for tomatoes, so I planted Amish Paste, Red Brandywine, a 5 Star Grape and the Valencia Orange tomatoes. They all grew extremely well the year I first planted them, that was the year of the amazing bloody mary mix! Hoping to have enough to can some of that again. I also want to make my roasted Valencia Orange tomato and arbol chili sauce again. It was the perfect, slightly hot sauce to put on eggs and avocado toast.

I realized that many of my seeds are pretty old. I had a hard time getting any jalapenos to sprout, and ended up having to buy new packets for those. My orange bell peppers had to be re-seeded twice, but those are only 2 years old from Johhny’s. I realize that some of the seeds that I’ve been using are from 5-6 years ago! I’m hoping to go through all the old stuff-maybe it’ll grow, maybe not-and buy fresh for next year.

As for herbs, this year I’m planting a lot of thyroid-supporting things: mugwort, lemon balm, lemon verbena (of course-my favorite herb!) and I’m going to attempt to grow some ashwaganda in a large grow bag. You harvest and use the roots, so I thought this would make it very easy and simple to get them out and clean. I also have plenty of stinging nettle growing with abandone in my woods, so I will be harvesting some this weekend to make tinctures, mineral-rich vinegar, dry some for later teas and will try to cook some for dinner.

My chamomile did not come back or sprout at all last year, so I’ve been without. I have lots of chamo-babies started and hopefully have a better harvest this year. I also have started some savory, marjoram and all the basils. My Greek oregano is a perennial now, along with some rosemary and I’m hoping the lavendar that grew last year will flower this year.

I have high hopes for some perennials that have been slowly growing for the past 2-3 years, including two peony bushes that seem pretty robust right now. Wishing for some flowers soon.

Happy gardening weekend!