Okay… I’m officially excited. A mild and rainy winter is giving way to a wonderful spring.

Yesterday I saw our gopher tortoise emerge for this first time in months… I saw butterflies again… and a slapped a mosquito. Things are getting REAL!

Let’s see what’s waking up around here. First up, my black cherry is about to bloom:

Black cherries are the only sure-fire cherry you can grow in this area. They’re bittersweet and make fantastic jams and liqueurs, not to mention ice cream additives. (That’s not to say it’s completely and utterly impossible to grow regular sweet cherries. Well, they say it is… but I’m going to FIGHT THE POWER! More on that project coming soon.)

Back to the spring show… here’s another lovely sight:

The wild plums are back with a vengeance. I’m growing a Chickasaw plum in the front yard which seems completely uninterested in waking up at the moment… but the blooms above belong to my next-door neighbor’s tree. A goodly handful of weedy branches hang over my fence line and feed enterprising children in the summer. The blooms are one of the best parts about these trees. My bet is that it’s a flatwoods plum, but you’d have to ask my friend Ariana about that. She knows, somehow. She just knows.

Onwards!

Those are buds on my blood orange tree. We may get our first fruits this year, Lord willing. I look forward to them. The tree isn’t very big yet but it’s one of the healthiest looking citrus on my property. For many reasons (this one included), I really don’t recommend citrus anymore… but boy, I do love them. My county is no longer a big citrus growing area, so I hope the diseases don’t wander onto my property.

That there is a mulberry bud about to burst into growth. They’re one of my favorite trees. This particular specimen is a “Pakistan” long mulberry… great big lovely fruits. The tree is young but bore a few berries last year. This year I hope it concentrates on growing up instead. Speaking of growing up, it’s 10′ tall cousin the “Illinois Everbearing” mulberry has decided it’s time to get kicking on fruit production:

This tree has been growing like mad and should be loaded this year. Very cool. Here’s another fruit that’s now getting underway, albeit a bit early:

That’s a Tropic Beauty peach. In my area, they tend to bloom a bit too early thanks to their low chill requirements. This year, though, that just means we’ll get some early peaches. Most of my other peaches, with the exception of my seedling trees, haven’t woken up yet. Let’s take a look at some other wonderful edibles… like cabbages:

That’s a “crinkly” type. Very cool. This year I just skipped the “normal” cabbages and planted neat looking ones. Just because. Here’s the other type we’re growing:

If you ever make sauerkraut, mix in some red cabbages like the one above. They’ll turn the kraut bright pink. People will wonder what in the world you made. Finally… let’s look at some up-and-coming French fries:

Have a wonderful new week and enjoy the weather. I’m going to spend as much time as possible outside.

-David the Good