The State of the Garden (plus a special birthday)

We spent some time this weekend working on the vegetable beds. Not much has happened this winter - we have had a bunch of problems that have prevented a good winter showing. Three days a week we get home well after dark, something ate every seedling as it came up, and the winter has been dry, just to name a few. We haven't touched the north bed yet... but check out how big our little parsley plant has gotten!

 It's a monster. It will mostly all come in the next few weeks. One of our lettuces did survive - I clipped a bunch of it for salad but it still looks happy.

Today we added 6 cubic feet of compost to the south bed and planted some of those garden window seedlings! Some of the salad greens were big enough to (hopefully) survive whatever has been eating the cotyledons. I think it might be pill bugs. I saw tons of them when I was planting today.

We planted lettuce, spinach, bok choy, cilantro, and arugula. Plus that front corner has celery that we regrew from a store bought bunch! Also, in this photo you can barely see the netting we covered the bed with. Our other big problem has been stray cats using our beds as giant litterboxes. NOT COOL.

The Meyer Lemon is blooming...

... and so is the lavender, finally! I wasn't sure if we'd get blooms since it has hardly rained.

Some gnomes have finally been sighted amongst the sage. I knew they would move in eventually!

The pomegranate is leafing out. Spring is on the way!

Last week I didn't post because my mom and dad were here! It was a great trip with lots of fun - but no trip would be complete without my dad helping us out around the house. Our big project was to replace the water heater. Ours was still working but at 21 years old and 28 gallons, we decided to go ahead and replace it before it crapped out on us.

Here's my amazing dad, hooking up our brand new heater. 

My dad can do anything and everything and growing up around that has really helped me believe that no project is too daunting to at least consider doing it yourself.

Today my dad turns 60! Happy Birthday, Dad! We love you so much!