It ain't pretty (yet)

Oops -- time to put together a post about what's happening in the garden, but I've yet to get out there and really do some spring clean up.  Soooo  -- here it is, but it ain't pretty.  In fact the vegetable garden area is kind of Sanford and Son, on a bad day.  Too many half done projects.  The garden fence has yet to have the posts cemented due to too much rain -- the post holes are full of water.  The exterior of the house still isn't completely painted.  The chicken coop is falling apart.  And the list goes on and on and on.

The cold frame has kept me supplied with some greens, along with chocolate and pineapple mint, through the winter.  I've got a lavender in there that I got on sale at Lowe's in the late fall and never planted out.  Our winter has been so mild (aside from a couple of cold snaps that went into the 20's) that everything might have survived in the open garden with just some covering on the cold nights, but who knows that at the beginning?

And more of the same greens in the garden itself, having made it through without any cover at all.  The mustard bolted to flower this past week with our record 83 degree high on Friday.

Some broccoli plants, again uncovered all winter.  They have given me multiple small harvests over the past couple of months, most recently appearing in our stir fry lo mein at dinner tonight.

The blueberry bushes are all in full bloom.

As is the peach tree.  Too early.  Doomed I am afraid, to one of our typical surprise (can it really be a surprise when it happens almost every year?) hard freezes that come after a February warm up.  Our last frost date is April 15.  Most of the plants will handle a late hard freeze between 32 and 29 degrees.  But not a peach tree.  It will be like our tulip magnolia that began blooming almost a month ago.

Those brown clumps should have been large pink tulip shaped blossoms.  Oh well.  Such is the life of a gardener.

But, back into the vegetable garden, you can see some clean up really needs to be done.  In all honesty, when I was taking all these pictures the sun was so glaring I couldn't see a thing in the camera viewer so I had no idea really of what I was taking a picture of or how they would show up, so composition and focus is kind of random (at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

The rosemary and chives are looking reasonable.

And over on the side of the house the Salad Table is coming along.  I had to lay some chicken wire and a vegetable cage on top of it to keep the cats from plopping down in the middle of my lettuce and snoozing in the sun.

And in the front yard, the red buckeye is close to blooming.  When the red spikes open I know it's time to put out the hummingbird feeder, as the first of the migrating hummers time their journey to coincide with the blooming of this nectar plant.

linking to the first Tuesday Garden Party of 2012 at An Oregon Cottage ; The Homestead Barn Hop