In which Spring springs, and we try to dodge the Tomato Curse once again

The blueberries are growing!

Strawberries, too!

And cherries...

...and plums...
...and pears!
Elsewhere in the yard, all the purple flowers are blooming:Chives.

Iris.

Rhododendron bushes in the foothills near the Farm grow taller than I can reach when I'm on Fiddle's back!

This bush, located behind the woodshed and receiving no tending whatsoever, is nearly as tall as the woodshed roof. You can understand why this is the Swampland State Flower!

Not everything is so easy to care for, unfortunately.

Down in the vegetable garden, we needed to replace the fence to keep Twelve out of the tomatoes. The old fence was meant to be temporary, and it lasted 6 months longer than I had originally planned!

Jim started by sharpening fenceposts...

...then he handed me the chainsaw and I got to practice my chainsawing skills. The Husquevarna saw is actually a bit too big and heavy for me, but the "lady" chainsaw needs some tinkering, so I muscled the big saw around and made fence points.

The garden posts, ready to set.

We thought it would take a long time, but it was a beautiful day and all three of us worked on the project--we got it finished in a single afternoon!

You can't see the single line of chickenwire in the photo, but it's sufficient to keep Twelve outside. We'll add another topline of chickenwire later this week.

Yukky hay makes good mulch for the paths between planting beds.

Normally I don't use mulch, because it is an excellent habitat for slugs -- bleh! -- but having the garden full of slug-eating chickens over the winter has pretty much eliminated the slug danger.

I hope.

Climb, peas!

Climb, tomatoes!

Jim planted the tomatoes again this year, because we had plenty of rain over the winter and we are determined to outrun the Tomato Curse. Therefore, I've done nothing to the tomato plants except take photos of them.

Wish us luck--it worked last year. Fingers crossed, right?