Spring is finally arriving here in upstate NY! We had a very long and windy winter but new life is finally emerging. The fruit trees are waking up and the daffodils bloomed just in time for Easter. The magnolia tree is currently in full bloom, and a couple of tulips are growing.

Magnolia tree

Daffodils

Many of my perennial herbs survived the winter. I have several patches of oregano, lemon balm, mint, sage, and thyme. Several of the comfrey plants are just starting to peek through the dead stems from last year. The blueberry bushes are starting to bud. All 3 of the black currants that I got for free in the fall survived the winter, as did the thornless black raspberry.

New flush of black current leaves

New growth visible on a couple of my rooted elderberry cuttings as well!

Two of the apple trees are breaking dormancy and putting out new leaves. The third one, which got damaged by caterpillars last year has a few buds swelling. It lost most of it’s leaves so I imagine it will be making slow progress this year, but at least it is showing signs of waking up. I was afraid it might die off, but that is happily not the case.

All three of the new pear trees are also just starting to wake up, I expect to see leaves soon.

I started to tidy up the fruit trees by removing the bubble wrap, tree guards, and burlap/leaf mulch. I plan to give them all some fertilizer, compost, and new straw mulch soon.

I had my first small harvest from the garden this week! I harvested sorrel, a perennial in the greenhouse, and overwintered outdoor kale.

The chives in the greenhouse are looking good and I’ve spotted a few coneflower sprouts along with lots of self-sown chamomile all across the raised beds.

Chives in the greenhouse

The leafy greens and radishes that I direct sowed a couple of weeks ago are now sprouting, as are the 2 types of peas. I planted out a few onion sets and have another batch nearly ready to go out in the ground.

Hoping the peas will climb the shelf in the corner of the greenhouse. I added a few sticks to encourage them to head in that direction.

I have started to harden off a few of my cold weather crops by placing them in the greenhouse. I will leave them out for incrementally more time each day for about a week to get them adjusted to normal growing conditions before transplanting near the end of April/early May. So far, I have a few kale, cabbage, chives, and broccoli seedlings.

I am also hardening off a few of the larger fig cuttings so that they can get more sunlight and hopefully start growing more.

Azalea blossoms

Last weekend I cleaned up the strawberry tower which had overwintered in the basement. A couple of plants died, but there were about a dozen small runners growing amongst the more mature plants. I carefully divided them out so that there was only one plant per pocket and I put most of the runners in their own pots so that they can grow on without competition.

Before and after shots of the strawberries. I added some homemade compost, granulated fertilizer, and fresh potting mix to level out the soil and hopefully provide enough nutrients for the season ahead.

These are an everbearing variety, so that means I should get a bunch of small harvests until frost, rather than one huge glut like June-bearing varieties. I was very happy with how the strawberries did last year, and am looking forward to growing more. I now have extra plants so I might make either another layer of the grow tower, or a couple of hanging baskets, depending on how many of them survive the dividing process.

I planted all my overwintered dahlia tubers in a variety of small pots and a couple of them are already sprouting. I don’t know how many will make it, but I had over 30 tubers, of 4 varieties. I will be planting some of them in my new raised bed which has hardware cloth on the bottom to keep out the voles.

We assembled the new Birdie’s metal raised bed a couple of weeks ago and figured out where I wanted it. We then filled the bottom half with logs, branches, and leaves.

My dad then added a layer of topsoil and compost from out huge leaf/debris pile out back. The final 6-8 inches will be filled with purchased manure and raised bed soil. I expect the level to drop a good bit over the coming year as the leaves and sticks start to break down, but then next spring we will be able to top it up with more compost.

I’m so happy that spring has arrived and that new life is visible on so many plants. Green leaves and fresh shoots are so nice to see after a long, dull winter!