Really Spring

I got my first sunburn of the year! Spring must be here. [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]

We've got dandilions sprouting up all over Hamilton.

Here's a recipe for [url=http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Dandelion-Potato-Salad]Dandelion Potato Salad[/url] which sounds delicious!

speaking of salads...does anyone know a good guacamole recipe. I've had a craving to make some with the nice whether coming.

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Originally posted by jrose:
[b]I got my first sunburn of the year! Spring must be here. [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img] [/b]

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Even though it was only 8 degrees this morning in Vancouver, it warmed up nicely by afternoon. With so many trees and shrubs in full bloom, BC's spring seems well ahead of Ontario's.

Thanks Sharon. Made the recipe- delicious!

Yeah, good guac is easy, though you have to get avocados with the right degree of mushiness. I've sometimes bought what I thought were nice mushy avocados only to discover they're totally black inside.

A few years ago, I was making guac for a party only to discover my avocados were way underripe. So I peeled them and dumped them into the food processor, reducing them to pellets about the size of kitty litter. Then I added the rest of the ingredients like usual.

The result? Basically, drunk people will eat anything.

But back O/T, guacamole is a great picnic dip because it's less likely to spoil after hours in the sun - no mayo or eggs to go off.

Rain and cold all day here, I think this is the first year I've ever put on the furnace on June 1st.

I got up at 5 am today, was 3C outside, not much warmer inside, so I've been feeding wood to the furnace all day.

Having to use the furnace on June 1st - yikes!

I think I've got to wait another week before planting seeds outside. [img]frown.gif" border="0[/img]

It's been wet and chilly here in Toronto too; I've been putting the furnace on in the morning while I get ready for work. My S/O has been trying to replace a bad patch of roof on our house for the past week and has been frustrated by the wind, that tore off some of the tar paper, and the rain. (You could crumple the old plywood roof decking into toothpicks with your bare hands, and wasps had moved in.)

Those ginormous new recycle bins the city foisted on us last week are big enough that they're handy for chucking old roof shingles into from rooftop.

I planted sunflowers a couple of weeks ago, and they're starting to poke up. The tarragon, thyme and sage in the herb garden survived the winter(!) and are well along already.

Boom boom, can you get a jump on your growing season by starting your seeds inside, or it just doesn't work in your space?

Edited to add: what with all the rain, we've had to mow already, even though it's been freezing.

[ 01 June 2008: Message edited by: Sineed ]

Fifty plants--wow! You must do lots of canning in the fall.

I usually put in about a dozen tomato plants (and one cherry tomato plant) and in the fall, make batches of sauce and freeze same.

A few years ago, I planted basil with the intention of making pesto and freezing it. But the thawed-out pesto was bitter.

A word of warning: I planted something called columnar basil a couple of years ago, and it grew into a tall, gorgeous plant. But it was inedible; tasted like soap. If you're planting herb seedlings for food, I recommend nibbling a leaf if it's an unusual variety. I've got some variegated mint growing in the back of my yard, and it's pretty, and it tastes like Muskol.

I garden as a hobby and to pass the time (I'm retired) and usually give roughly 80% of what I grow to friends and neighbours. I rely on the locals to help me out with various jobs (because of a hernia I can't lift anything heavy), and giving them stuff from my garden is my way of saying 'thanks'. [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]

[ 02 June 2008: Message edited by: Boom Boom ]

Well, perhaps summer will go into the fall boom boom, seeing as how late spring has been.

Here we have had the last 3 days in the high 80's, and I now have my tomatoe plants out in the garden, and the cukes are up, though nothing else, as of yet. Will start to worry if nothing else shows in the next day or so though.

We have some beautiful new wood pecker and jay species here these days from climates further south. And interestingly we have also observed sparrows here for the first time.

Our growing season usually extends into October, so I'm not panicking yet. It's supposed to warm up here on Wednesday, so I may get a lot planted, but I'm concerned about continuing overnight lows of around 5C. I'm not sure that's anything I need to be worried about. What say you?

Forgot to address the hummingbirds here, I cannot believe the varieties and numbers this year, we have 5 feeders now. We had 3 and had to go out and get 2 more. The snow is still so low in the mountains that no alpine flowers have even started blooming. On average we have about 10 hummies competing for each feeder, and they are being very vicious this year.