Tiller to the Rescue!

Today is a sad day.  We called Rohde Sales and Service to find out how much longer our tiller will be.  Bad news.  The carburetor appears to need replacing, and the cost to do so is more than the tiller is worth.  This means that we need to take care of a 3,300 square foot garden by hand?!?  I don't think so. 

ACE Hardware to the rescue.  We called around and found the tiller we wanted to rent for only $36.  It's a big one.  Fast forward four hours, and the garden looks like it's ready for sweet corn and peas to be planted.  Yes, I know.  Some people have had them in the ground for four weeks already.  I'm always a little behind schedule.

 We started out a little slow.  It took a little time to get to know the tiller.  However, soon it was working like a charm!  It didn't take long for Tim to finish the big garden and move on to the little garden.  We didn't know how long it would take, so we were happy with our progress.

There will most likely still be lots of weeds in the big garden this year.  We couldn't believe how nice and rich the little garden's soil was.  It's pretty amazing.  It's dark and there are few weed chunks that we had to deal with.  My work has just begun in both gardens.  I need to weed around the garlic in the small garden.  Obviously, the sweet corn will be planted in the big garden, and I'm putting both bean trellis' in the big garden this year.  Easier to weed around with more space.  I also plan on weeding around the horseradish.  This is something that my grandpa left me (not even knowing that he would be leaving it to me) and I hope to actually dig and process some of it this year.  Tim and I will have some fun with it.... and I already know to use the food processor outside when preparing it.

 My two cold frames with the spinach are not looking too promising.  Not sure if the seeds were old or what exactly happened.  I'm not giving up hope completely.  You never know what might pop up.  If nothing shows up in a week, I'm going to plant some of my things from in the house out there. 
I have lots and lots of tomatoes that I need to get outside.  They are getting really big, and are starting to outgrow my lights.
My strawberries are getting really big, and I need to clean up their bed.  It won't take me long, and I might mulch around the pyramid bed again.

This beautiful little blossom is on my apple tree.  It's looking so nice, but I'm not seeing a single flower on our Honey Crisp tree.  I'm not sure how they are supposed to cross pollinate if there aren't any blossoms on one of the trees.  I might have to look into borrowing a branch from our friends and seeing if I can hand pollinate the trees.  I don't even know if you can do such a thing, but if this Honey Crisp tree refuses to bloom, I might get desperate!

The rhubarb is big enough to pick and eat now!  I'm cutting some up tonight to make Rhubarb Sauce.  I might freeze some right away, too.  It's nice to have some plants that can be processed right away, since later in the summer will be used on the other fruits and vegetables.

Lastly, we're waiting for a warm day to finish our grapevine supports.  The grapes have leaves starting now, so we're sure we didn't kill them off next year.  I already mulched around them with shredded paper and added some straw to the top.  The picture of one of our little buds is near the top of the page.  I'm still trying to figure out how to best move pictures and text around to get things to look nice.

Can't wait to see what we get accomplished tomorrow!  Forecast for tomorrow is cold and rainy, again.