Spring came early this year to Southern Alabama.  Mid-February brought warm breezy days and cool nights. We anticipated another cold snap to finish out the winter, but it never came. We have had the longest Spring that we can remember, with blooms coming early and lasting far longer than ususal.  

The garden box is growing beautifully with radishes, lettuce, peas, and carrots, and we have added some to the main garden. The potatoes are up and very well established, the corn is up about 2 inches, and we have 12 tomato plants in the ground. The peas are climbing their trellises, but the beans didn’t do so well. Only a few came up and will probably have to be replanted. We also added 2 new blueberry bushes which brings our total to 12, 2 thornless blackberries, and 4 grapes. The fig tree we planted last year died, and I am hoping to plant a new one this year.

We finished the deck, complete with railing and trellises for the garden box, and tackled the huge project of the chicken coop. The coop isn’t finished, but pretty far along. As we (Roy) tend to do, it is perhaps a little over engineered, but quite nice and will even be insulated.

Roy cut down several trees to clear the barn site and increase the sun on the garden. He has already sawn and stacked them and received more logs from a friend. And finally, we made great strides toward putting away long-term food and supplies. This was something we have talked about for a while, but we only recently decided we should get it done before prices go up any more.