Slowly, slowly, things are taking shape in the garden.  Last Saturday, 9 volunteers came to help pot up summer squash, plant potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and continue dig up bamboo for the future raspberry bed.   And earlier, I was able to get 25 donated asparagus crowns planted.

Baby leeks, onions, basil, cilantro, parsley and thyme are all happily growing in their pots, and I put in rosemary, lavender and tarragon plants in the front yard.   I still have to figure out where to put some mint (in pots!) and add several more herbs, but it’s a good start.

More and more the yard is looking less like a disaster zone and more like a garden.   The front yard (stage one) is complete, and over the coming year, we will move on to stage two, adding grape arbors, perennial fruit bushes/vines/trees and herbs and perennial flowers.

Two large swaths of the backyard have become (for the time being) annual veggie beds, with the section sloping downhill designed with swales the catch and conserve water.  Much of the back still requires major work, however,  including finishing the chicken coop (running grapes up the side), building a shed (with trellised plants – hops and roses, most likely), finishing the small “lawn”, building a bread oven, removing the remaining bamboo to plant berry canes, and planting more fruit trees (persimmon, fig, apricot, plum), blueberry and currant bushes and maybe even some cranberries.

One side yard is 90% complete, but the other is barely begun (where the shady natives garden will grow thimbleberries, huckleberries, Oregon grape, etc).  But there has been so much progress, and we are going to be able to produce an amazing amount of food for BCS this year, I am sure.

I’ve given away twenty or so, but the remaining 50-plus tomato-lets and little tomatillos are outgrowing their pots, anxious for the frost-free weather, so they can go in the ground, and out of my living room at night.

The tulips are fading, but the peas are slowly reaching up and grabbing their supports (and the Tall Telephone peas in the backyard are twice as tall as these Oregon Sugar Pod II‘s).

A third load of mulch, and 20-odd tomato cages were delivered (we still need 15 or so more).

Baby poppies are taking hold between the lettuces and mustard greens.

And most exciting to the children – the first signs that there will be fruit this summer (Quinalt strawberries in flower, as are the other varieties and our early blueberries, and our red currant has set fruit already.)

What plans/hopes/dreams do you have for your garden this year?  If you’re in Portland, we’re always willing to help out with garden work,  just let us know (many hands make light work)!