Garden check-in, Earth Day '14

We've been keeping a blog for 9 years now.  One of the things I love best about it is how it functions as a garden journal.  It is easy to look back over the 7 seasons of work here and see what's worked, what has gotten out of control (!!!) and just how much things have changed.  Each year we've added perennial food and medicine plants, while encouraging or transplanting others to make them more accessible.  Where there was once unimaginable space, now we're starting to take over the lawn.  I like that.  Sort of how the pictures in this post shove over too far into the side border.  Nature is like that.  She pays no attention to the rules we try to impose upon her :-)

Black currants went in last year.  First bloom.

Wild black raspberries dug and transplanted along the garden fence.  They'll be a challenge to contain.

Colors!  I didn't realize how much I missed them until they returned.

Comfrey - so far behaving.

We've got daylily patches everywhere because we love the flavor of the flower buds.

The elderberries are looking to give it another go this year.  Fruitflies be gone!

Fennel surprised me by coming back, nestled against the hyssop.

Horseradish spreading vigorously.

Today we'll plant the new fig tree and put the blue cohosh into the woods.

The new little orchard.

Soon the brilliant chartreuse of the maple will flood the morning light of the kitchen and packing room.

St John's wort volunteered just where I might have planted it!

Hard to see, but the thyme has left the garden, spreading across the so-called path.