Journal – Spring Onion Planting

I’ve been doing some spring gardening planting some onion starters and clearing out some of the blackberry bushes. I’m planning on putting in an asparagus bed right on the edge of the blackberry hedge. There is good drainage there and I think they might do well.

The herb garden had died back a lot in the winter but everything seems to have survived at least. The onions were getting eaten faster than they were growing so I decided to put in a bunch more. It was very inexpensive for a big handful of starters so I thought it was worth doing.

The parsley keeps coming back like a weed so I pulled some of that out and cleared off some of the grass and weeds to get a nice additional area for the onions.

As an experiment I put some of them in right in the middle of the moss to see if they would grow there.

I also put them in the front garden next to the flowers. Lots of the tulips are coming back up now and should be flowering soon. There were some blue flowers that just volunteered to sprout up by themselves in the garden. I always like it if there are things that just show up. Some of the native flowers are very nice too. I tend to leave a lot more things than most people when I do my weeding.

The neighbor likes to come over sometimes and suggest the removal of some of the more poisonous looking plants. I appreciate that really.

Barefoot Gardening

There is something very sole satisfying about walking around and doing the gardening in your bare feet. It was a perfect day to feel the recent rain water gently moving between my toes. Birds were singing and the sounds of frogs could be heard. The air was starting to smell of flowers - the magnolia trees were just about to open.

It is much easier to feel slick surfaces and move accordingly. Clean up is easier too if you step on something messy. I just walk around on the wet grass by the side of the house and most things clean off very well. Most other shoes with deep patterns on the bottom are more difficult to clean.

If I’m not in a hurry I can even trim the blackberries in my bare feet but I usually wear sandals for that because of the thorns. If you walk slowly and are careful you can pull the thrones out before they go in too deep and cause much pain.

Mowing the grass in your bare-feet makes them green so I usually wear sandals for that too or take a shower afterward. I have a push mower so I can’t easily do much of that until it dries out a bit more but the grass is just starting to grow.

Japanese Gardening Knife

I really like my Hori-Hori Japanese gardening knife. It worked great for clearing out some of the weeds and planting the onion starters.

It is really strong and doesn’t bend if your taking out tough weeds with it. You can even use the beveled edge to cut off some thorny vines if you need to.

Digging small holes for planting is easy. I just stabbed the blade into the ground, made a hole and put the onion in it.

It is best to clean the soil off afterward to prevent the blade from rusting. This is really easy to do.

Nettles are starting to grow in the yard behind the swinging chair. I usually leave them alone if they leave me alone. I carefully harvested some choice looking tender leaves only getting slightly stung in the process and cooked them up for a snack. Yum.

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Thanks for reading! As always I welcome your comments and support. Photos were taken by me with the Galaxy S7.