Spring has Arrived (or at least the tulips have emerged)

The weather has been absolutely beautiful here the past few days!  The kids are so happy to be playing outside without their cumbersome winter clothing.  And the tulips we planted as part of Journey North's Tulip Test Garden project have started to emerge.

We have been keeping an eye on the area where we planted the bulbs in the fall for the past couple of weeks, and on Friday Madeline noticed that 5 of the bulbs have sprouted.  Today she counted 8!  Their arrival was evidently a signal to Madeline that it is time to get ready to plant our garden.  She spent a long time Friday afternoon clearing the leaves and debris out of the garden.  We are now ready to plant some lettuce (and maybe some spinach if I can find some seeds).

Tulip Test Garden Planted

Today we planted our Journey North Tulip Test Garden.   We had previously picked out a site.  We decided to plant them around our play structure and sandbox.  Our yard is mostly clay, so we did add some soil to the bulbs as we planted them.  We were careful to follow the Journey North instructions so that we can help announce the arrival of spring in North America in 2010.  Hailey and Isabella were not as interested in the project as I would have hoped.  They actually went down to our vegetable garden to investigate what was left.  Madeline and I dug the holes and placed the bulbs and then covered them.  Madeline actually made her own little area to care for herself, although it is more in the shade than the rest of the tulip bulbs.  I suppose it will be a good experiment to see which bulbs emerge first.

Here is a picture of the site we chose, with holes dug.  We did try to use a tool that dug specific holes, but that did not work very well in our clay soil, so we resorted to using a shovel.  We planted on both sides of the sandbox.

This is the area where Madeline planted her 3 bulbs, which she says she is going to check on daily.  She was very good about measuring the spots to be sure the bulbs were planted 6 inches deep.

Here is the first bulb we planted.  Madeline named it Mark.  She named her other 2 bulbs Emma and Morgan.

We are now going to cover them with some old boards so that the squirrels don't get to them.  We will remove the boards later this winter.

Carrots and Beans

We were outside today checking out the site for our Tulip Test Garden, and while we were there we decided to check on our garden.

Most of what we grew this year is done, but we have yet to harvest carrots, and the bean plants just keep going.  The girls decided to dig up some of the carrots.  They are small, but much better than what we got last year, which were basically tiny roots.

They also picked some green beans.  We are amazed that there are still some beans out there that are very tiny and won't be ready for a while.

They are planning "carr-bean" salad for dinner tonight.
We also found a woolly bear caterpillar munching on the carrot greens, so we added him to the container with the one we found earlier this fall.  Of course, we included some carrot greens.

I think we are going to have to vote on the location for the tulips, however.  I had a spot picked out for them, but Isabella has other ideas.  I think we will have to go over the criteria for the experiment and pick the spot that best fits the criteria, or maybe plant them in both locations.  We are excited to start the project, though.  I need to go find a soil thermometer so that we can be sure to plant at the correct time.

Tulip Test Garden

This year we are going to plant a Tulip Test Garden, which is a Journey North project that tracks spring's arrival across the Northern Hemisphere.  It looks like just the kind of project we will enjoy.  We have ordered our tulip bulbs (Red Emperor) and I actually thought we might plant them today, but after reading a bit I decided it might be a bit early to do so.  We are going to hold off planting for a week or two.  There are some wonderful activities on the site though, so we are going to try some of those instead of planting.