forty-five hours...

...give or take a few minutes is what's left timewise until planting day officially begins so after work i headed over to the garden to take care of a few things...and,as usual, find a surprise or two...the first thing i did was pick all the maple seeds out of the beds ( well...most of them ) and then i turned the beds over again ( top two photos )...most of the organic matter has broken down but there are still some stems form winter rye and some root balls that are resisting breakdown..i will be going over the beds thursday and removing the bulk of them before planting begins...i also thinned back the collards to one plant every twelve inches in the row ( third photo )...the asparagus ( fourth photo ) is, in the main, looking robust...the plants i transplanted over the weekend are looking a bit shocked...but they are still green and should recover...i found a second escaped jerusalem artichoke ( fiith photo ) and will be increasing my vigilance for rouges outside the bed...i will wait a bit before cutting these back in an effort to find the space in time where the plant has expended the stored energy of the tuber but has not established a viable root system...if i mistime it i will hacking them down all summer...finally the bed of collards, turnips, spinach, and beets in the last photo are doing well...we are looking forward to the time when all the beds are green with new growth...the season started in march with the garlic...it becomes "official" on thursday at four in the afternoon...everyone is welcome...we have plants and seeds to share.