Ist planting of the year!

I planted today! Usually it is too early to plant anything this time of year, but it's been such a mild winter that i'm afraid to wait, and miss out on spring crops. I made a little pea tent on the patio... a modified version of the pea tepee I did 3 years ago:


That one I planted directly in the ground. I thought my son (then 3) would like to play in it, but he really had no interest in it, other than to eat the peas :). This one is in pots on the patio.


Maybe the dog with enjoy playing with this one ;).


I also planted some spinach & kale for the patio.


It's too early to plant the stuff in my raised garden, but I felt like I needed to do something in there, so I tilled it (just overturned & fluffed the first few inches of dirt with a pitchfork).


I checked on my strawberry patch, which seems to being doing just fine without any help from me, so I let it be.


Since I am done with the spring seeds for this year, I put them in a baggie in the deep freezer to use next year. I read somewhere that freezing them helps them last longer.

While I was in there, I took out some bean & melon seeds left over from last year. I won't be planting the melon seeds this year, because they didn't produce much last year, and took up a lot of room. The beans were great though. We got a lot of beans all summer, and none of us got sick of them. I even put them in my pasta salads, and they were great.

Butterfly garden, garden updates, and Chia Cat!

We are excited & anxiously awaiting our butterfly garden plants! We ordered native plants that are all butterfly attraction from a local garden center. They benefit from the sale of the plants, so it makes it even better. The lady at the garden center said to also plant things the caterpillars like to eat, so they will stick around. Dill was one of the things she mentioned, so i'll be planting dill among the flowers. I started the seeds, and they're starting to grow. They have a way to go.


My spinach is growing wonderfully, and I will plant it in a pot in a shady area off the porch soon. My raised garden is in full sun, so it wouldn't do well there.


We couldn't pass up this Chia Cat we found at a garage sale for a quarter. We put the seeds on 3 days ago, and are patiently waiting. I may grow edible chia seeds on this later, if I can ever find out if the clay is food safe or not.
ETA: They said it's ok!