And so it begins

Spring is in the air. The days are longer, it's warmer out, and the stop sign is back at the bottom of the hill up the road. (It gets taken out for the duration of Winter, as there are some vehicles that have difficulty stopping there when having to also contend with snow and ice.)

Another sign of Spring is people start working in the gardens, and their flowers and other plants start coming up and blooming.

Mother's tulips in the back yard have finally bloomed, and they were beaten by a few days by the daffodils I didn't even know she had planted. This morning, Mother roto-tilled the garden, so it's nicely aerated for when we finally plant later this season.

Now, there are a lot of people who are already starting their gardens. They've bought their plants, and some of the are even in the ground already. My household is not among them for one very simple reason.

Planting outside right now is a Bad Idea. Sure, the weather is pleasant; Spring came early this year. We've had very nice weather for over a week, and even if we've had a few rainy days (April showers~), overall the weather has been very nice, so people are taking advantage of it. Farmers, also. There's only one problem.

It's still very possible for us to get a frost. And really, one frost is all it can take to kill all those spring flowers, tomatoes, and other edible items that people are already planting. Like it or not, this frost risk will continue until about mid-may, which is typical for Zone 4.

So, much as we'd like to otherwise, we're waiting with planting our garden. We've got the dirt all ready to go, and we're trying out a lean-to structure for the cucumbers this year (seeing how it works; it was in my Gardening Club magazine a few months ago), but the planting itself will have to wait.

Which is just as well, since Mother is still not quite certain what she wants to plant this year. I do know, much to my regret, what will not be planted.

Corn. We won't have corn in out back yard garden, and we haven't had it since I was a kid. Because the squirrels come along and bite the cobs off before they have a chance to finish growing. They did when I was a child, anyway, and ever since that year, Mother has refused to have corn in the garden. They did the same with sun flowers, so we don't have those either.

Le sigh~.

In the meantime, another sign of Spring is the rhubarb has come up. It's already up to my knees, actually. So, since my cooking club magazine had a recipe for Strawberry-Rhubarb Upside-down cake, I'm going to try making it. We've already cut some rhubarb, actually. Much to our surprise, it's already starting to flower, so we'll have to watch for that and nip off the buds before they can fully bloom (if you don't, the rhubarb goes rather sour).

We also had some fun digging up one of the plants today. One of our co-workers had Rhubarb in her garden when she first moved in. For maybe a day or two. The previous home owners decided they wanted the plant, so despite it not being on the list of things they could have from the house, they came by when the new owners were at work and dug it up. So, she's been without rhubarb for quite some time. We asked her if she would like on of ours (they're trying to take over!), and she said yes. Turned out to be five smaller plants all clumped together from one root ball, though; it came apart, but with how hardy rhubarb can be (in my experience), it should be fine, once she has it in the ground.