And so is the apricot. The bees are very happy about this, as evidenced by the little chappy in the photo, and so am I... except that this is an "on" year for the apricot and I am wondering if I'm going to go crazy trying to process all the fruit as I usually do.
Last weekend I planted peas, carrots, dill, spinach, lettuce, mesclun and rocket outside. We had quite a bit of rain this week (yay!) and a few frosts (uh-oh!). I'm hoping the soil is warm enough that a few frosty mornings won't kill my seeds. Having said that, seeds are cheap so I think it's worth the gamble. I'm particularly excited about the carrots. I've never actually grown them before, and I got a heirloom variety that I can save some seeds from if all goes according to plan.
I also heard about a weed killing method that seems to be working quite well... our trusty old friend vinegar! You just pour it on the weeds and they start dying within the day (as long as it doesn't rain). It seems to be doing quite the job on the dandelions, but I think it will take more than one application. It will kill lawn and other plants, too, so one has to be judicious in the application, but I suspect I will be keeping Heinz vinegar in production this year!
Incidentally, I don't know about Australia, but over here the cheap vinegar is actually made from a petroleum by-product. Aaaaaarrrrrggghhh! Just what we need - more stupid uses for fossil fuels. That's why I use Heinz - it's made from corn. Now of course there's a whole debate about corn, but I think it still rates better than petroleum.
I used to work with a woman who said one of the joys of spring for her was making a salad out of the new dandelion leaves. I thought I might try one before I set about killing them, just in case they really are one of the joys of spring. It's not something I would recommend. Ours are so bitter they make one's tongue want to strangle one for being so stupid. I think I'll stick with rocket.
We have blue skies and (almost) warm weather today. Methinks a barbecue might be the go for dinner.
Cheers!
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