April and May went by in a flash. We concentrated on fencing, transferring seedlings from the greenhouse to vegetable and flower beds, and planting strawberries. This is our first year for strawberries, and we hope to be selling berries at the Saturday Market by the middle of July. All the early season crops are up and it’s time to transplant tomatoes and peppers. The last seeds to go in are the beans and corn, as they require warm soil. In mid-May we had a spate of unseasonably cool weather, but now it feels as though summer is fully upon us. Temperatures have been high, and the sun is shining brightly.
The bird life has been abundant. Our bird feeder has had many visitors: American gold finches, house martins (rosy and purple), towhees, cowbirds, chickadees and sparrows. Hummingbirds are zooming around, and a red-breasted sapsucker (a woodpecker with a completely red head and black and white body) decided that our deck post made the perfect instrument for drumming its courting riff. The heritage wheat (Red Fyfe) is coming up, and the peas are clinging to their trellis and blooming well—some pods are appearing. The lilacs, pink dogwood, and ornamental cherry trees (prunus x yedoensis ‘Akebono’) have bloomed. On May 25, the first Bambi was spotted -- in both senses of the word! We are looking forward to a great summer at Alder Creek Farm.