April 2026 Update

Posted on April 29, 2026 by Dave @ HappyAcres

Most of the month of April was extremely dry here, with very little rainfall. Last year we had a whopping 11 inches of rain in April, which drowned crops and left the soil a soggy mess. This year we’ve gotten right at three inches of rain this month, and most of that fell in the last week. The temperatures have been running a bit warmer than usual, and that helped get the asparagus sprouting up about two weeks ahead of last year. We’ve gotten about eight pounds of it so far, and we have enjoyed it on several occasions. One of our favorite treatments is to make Aspargua Mimosa, steaming the asparagus and topping with grated hard-boiled egg and a few capers.

April asparagus

Asparagus Mimosa

Another dish we’ve made is a Lemon Chicken Asparagus stir-fry. We served this over black rice, and it is another tasty way to use our asparagus.

Lemon Chicken Asparagus stir-fry

The lettuce in the greenhouse is keeping as well-supplied for salads. The Salanova Red Leaf letttuce is coloring up well, as is the Strawberry Oakheart. I’m also growing Bergam’s Green leaf lettuce, which gets large heads of tender leaves that are great for our salads.

red leaf lettuce

Bergam’s Green leaf lettuce

Salad with Apple and Cheddar

I’ve got arugula growing in containers in the greenhouse and it is beginning to produce for us now. We don’t use a lot of it, but it is nice to have the homegrown leaves which have great flavor I think.

mixed arugula

In other news, I have planted the container eggplants outside the greenhouse. I’m growing Fairy Tale, Gretel and Icicle again this year. All three are AAS Winners and do quite well for me in containers. This gives us a jump on the season while we wait for the main crop of eggplant I grow in-ground in the vegetable garden.

container eggplants

In closing, our Encore azaleas are blooming now and putting on a lovely show.

Encore azaleas

I hope you have enjoyed this update, and I’ll be back soon with more happenings from Happy Acres!

 

Posted in Gardening | Leave a comment

Photo Friday: Early Blooms

Posted on April 3, 2026 by Dave @ HappyAcres

Today I want to show some of the things we have blooming here in late March and early April. I’ll start with the daffodils. We have quite a few of them planted in various locations, and they have been blooming for a couple of weeks now. They always lend a bit of cheer and color to our garden when little else is blooming.

early daffodil mix

bicolor daffodils

white daffodils

Another early and dependable bloomer are the hellebores, and we have several different ones blooming now.

hellebore

hellebore flower

The first iris of the year is always exciting to see, especially for my wife (aka The Iris Queen) who has quite a collection! This first one is a short but sweet and well-named dwarf: Riveting. The second to open was another dwarf named Cherry Garden. Last year she had 51 different irises that bloomed, and we always look forward to the annual parade.

Riveting iris

Cherry Garden iris

Our traditional azaleas are also beginning to bloom now. The red ones are especially pretty so far, and the pink and white ones are beginning to show color.

red azalea

And last but not least, our Korean Spice Viburnum is covered with fragrant blooms that will scent the air while they are open.

Korean Spice Viburnum

I hope you have enjoyed this look at some of the blooms of early spring here at Happy Acres. I’ll be back soon with more happenings!

 

Posted in Photo Friday | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

March 2026 Update

Posted on March 29, 2026 by Dave @ HappyAcres

As usual, I have been busy this March with seed starting activities. So far I have started seeds for the brassicas, petunias, parsley, eggplant, tomatoes and peppers. Next up in the lineup will be the cucumbers and squashes. It keeps me busy with watering duties, and I am looking forward to getting some of them in the ground and containers next month.

brassica seedlings

I’ve been harvesting greens from the greenhouse and vegetable garden. About half of our collards survived the winter and I have been cutting leaves from them for our use. I got a nice haul a couple of weeks ago, almost three pounds of them.

Nancy Malone Wheat Purple collard plant

harvest of collard greens

I’m also cutting lettuce as needed from the greenhouse. I brought in two large heads of Bergam’s Green leaf lettuce, along with other varieties as well.

Bergam’s Green lettuce

mixed lettuce from greenhouse

The Bergam’s Green went into a wilted lettuce salad we had for dinner one night, which is always a favorite of mine.

wilted lettuce salad

I’ve been cutting the kale in the greenhouse as needed for soups and such. It’s a mix of curly types including Winterbor, Starbor and Scarlet. I used this batch to go in some bean and farro soup I cooked up. The kale does quite well in the winter greenhouse, and it is nice to have available this time of year when harvests are sparse.

curly kale

bean and farro soup with kale

And I’ve been busy baking bread as needed. I ground up some heirloom Turkey Red wheat berries to go in a loaf of sourdough bread and a batch of hamburger buns I made recently. It’s a tasty wheat for baking into breads, and I also used it to make a batch of dinner rolls recently.

Turkey Red sourdough bread

Moomie’s burger buns

We have a lot of early flowers blooming, and I will share pics of them in a later post. I hope you have enjoyed this update, and I’ll be back soon with more happenings from Happy Acres!

Posted in Gardening | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

February 2026 Update

Posted on February 28, 2026 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It has been a quiet month here when it comes to gardening. The weather was cold and snowy early in the month, and harvesting was minimal. I was able to cut some curly kale from the greenhouse, which was a mix of Scarlet and Starbor. It has held up well in the cold, and usually does well for me in the winter greenhouse. I lost some of the lettuce I had planted in there, but over a dozen plants survived and should give us leaves in a week or so.

curly kale

I used the kale and one of our Purple sweet potatoes from storage to make kale and sweet potato hash one night for a side dish. I cooked it in my ancient cast iron skillet that is well-seasoned from years of use!

kale and sweet potato hash

Earlier in the month I cooked up some ‘fried’ collard greens from the last of the leaves I cut back in January. I sliced the greens into fine shreds and cooked them in olive oil, and seasoned with a bit of salt. The leaves are so flavorful they don’t need more than that to suit my taste buds.

fried collards

It has been a busy month at the bird feeders. The big Pileated Woodpeckers have been frequent visitors, and I spied one sitting on the ground one day. It flew up to our fence for a bit before flying off, giving me a show for sure.

Pileated Woodpecker on ground

woodpecker on fence

I have been busy with seed starting activities, and I will have more on that soon. I hope you have enjoyed this update, and I’ll be back soon with more happenings from Happy Acres!

Posted in Gardening | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Let the Seed Starting Begin – Again

Posted on February 2, 2026 by Dave @ HappyAcres

Once again it’s time to begin starting seeds for the garden. This time of year I start all of my seeds indoors using fluorescent lights setup in our basement. It’s way too cold out in the greenhouse, and this year I had to wade through the snow to even get in the greenhouse and bring some potting supplies indoors. Note to self – plan ahead next year! That said, it is unusual for us to have this much snow hang around. The cold is normal, but not the snow.

starting seeds

I start most of my seeds either in individual 3.5″ plastic pots or in plug flats. For a starting medium I use either a potting mix made for seed starting, or else an organic potting soil that is fine-textured without a lot of big, rough pieces in it. I prefer to use a seed starting mix without added fertilizer so I can add my own as needed. Once the seedlings are a couple of weeks old I will use a weak fish and seaweed fertilizer like Neptune’s Harvest to give them a little food. I like the seaweed fertilizers because they are unlikely to burn the tender seedlings, especially if they are mixed at half or less the recommended strength.

128, 72 and 50 cell plug flats

This week I am sowing seeds for parsley, the container eggplant varieties I grow, and a few of the hot peppers I plan to grow in containers. Next I will start seeds for greens like arugula and pac choi, tatsoi, mizuna and other mild mustard greens. Near the end of February I will start seeds for broccoli, cabbage and kohlrabi. You can find my general timeline in my Seed Starting and Planting Schedule.

I hope you have enjoyed this update, and I’ll be back soon with more happenings!

Posted in Gardening | Tagged , , | Leave a comment