Herb spiral

So after 4 attempts (1 major and 2 minor rockfalls), the herb spiral is done! Okay, I have to qualify that, the structure is up and the dirt is in but I will have to wait till next week for market day to get my herbs. The husband would also like to see a mini pond and that still needs to be dug and a little basin put in. But the major building is done and my engineer parents were not ashamed of my construction :)

Okay maybe Ryan was right, this doesn't look very spirally at all.

A little bit more spirally from this angle.

And the prettiest spiral of all.
Actually, it's still the same spiral!

The top part is filled with a mixture of sand, compost and some top soil but mostly sand and compost. As you go down the spiral, there's vermiculite (packaging material that one of our lab reagents came in, I hope it's the same thing as the garden version), top soil, peat moss and compost. All the way at the end is mostly peat moss and compost. The sand in the bag in the last picture will be used in the pond.

Spring is here

and somehow Audrey is off to a slower start than last year. And somehow, there were a whole bunch of plants that survived my late summer to winter neglect and are starting pop up right now.

Let's start in in the backyard:

I think that's a Solomon seal shoot.

 Virginia bluebells... I thought I had lost them to slugs last year!

Dicentra?

The other dicentra. Not as big but it survived!

Eastern red columbine... didn't get planted because I thought they had died in the pot... but look!

Eastern redbud... scrawny tree right now but one day it will be big and covered in even more flowers than this.

And now the front yard:

Raspberries are putting out their leaves and look super healthy. I made a border out of wood from a basement shelf that got taken down. The mulch is second cutting hay (I got 2 bales for Bonnie but there's no way she's going to be able to finish all of it anytime soon so hopefully there aren't too many seed heads).

Sedum, lemon balm, baptisia, and strawberries.

Lavender and Thyme are coming up through their dead branches. I probably should cut the dead stuff off.

Geranium and dianthus.

And lastly, the new stuff for this year:

Hoop house! Lettuces, arugula, spinach and carrots. I probably actually didn't need the hoop house by the time I actually got it set up but I think it's still pretty cool!

And new strings for square foot gardening.

So happy that Spring is here :D