I was supposed to post this last night but ran out of steam.

Finally, a bit of sunshine!! The butterfly milkweed has begin to bloom.

As have the daylilies....

And the wild yarrow.

We were finally able to run the still, and distilled a gallon of comfrey hydrosol.

We started cleaning out the drying shed...a raccoon or possum got in there this winter and made a HUGE mess.

It broke open out stash of dozens of bags of packing peanuts. It's a Very Big Mess.

Donna channeled her inner firebug and we burned the HUGE pile of brush that's been sitting there, drying. It's mostly wild plum and mulberry wood. Keeping some of the wild plants under control can be quite a job.

And in the evening we went to Des Moines for good eats, good wine, and excellent live music played by Daphne Willis :)

We've been having a bit of weather here.

We had some help harvesting strawberries today.

Donnas main perennial bed continues to look amazing!!!

This color combo makes me go all swoony!

Due to weather, we didn't do anything outside. We made some things...

...and packed some orders. This photo shows our assortment of packing boxes.

We are growing potatoes vertically. Or trying to anyway. We found some round wire cages on the curb this spring (yay curb crawling!) and got a ten lb bag of seed taters at an Amish store for $3.75. We shared the taters with our friend Becky, so we probably planted 6-7 lbs in five round cages. Put cardboard under the cages to supress weeds, threw the cut up seed potatoes on top, and covered with leaves and old straw. That's it! As the potato plants grow, we add more straw or old hay. I've covered them twice do far and as you can see they are ready for another layer.

Tomatoes are doing well, we will have to think about stringing them up soon.

This ambitious little pepper plant has a pepper on it already.

BABY PEACHES!!!

The very first St. Johns Wort blossoms!

Dante is a faithful (and talkative) garden helper.

The big, icky, super-duper sweaty project today was hauling lots of very heavy barn refuse (MAN those mini horses produce a lot of manure) out to the raspberry patch. Donna weeded, and Maggie mulched. It wasn't very hot - maybe lower 80's? - but the humidity was 91 percent and the sweat was literally dripping off us. Sweaty drippy manure-covered us. That's sexy farm life for ya. There's at least another 3/4 left to do, too. Here's hoping the berries are plentiful next year!!