Mid-morning, I took a break from planting young seedlings into the veggie garden’s raised beds and relaxed under the willow in the cool, dappled, spring sun.

It felt great to stretch out and breathe deeply after bending over those veggies. In the past few days I’ve successfully transplanted Chinese cabbage, Savoy cabbage, Russian red kale, cauliflower, and arugula. Most I’d started from seed. I also sowed two types of lettuces — prizehead and buttercrunch — plus atomic red carrots directly into beds. In another week or so, I’ll get all the beans and peas in, but the trellis is cleared, and soil already weeded and ready.

Along one edge of the veggie garden, the strawberry beds have just begun to bloom.

The perennial beds needed weeding and watering, so I moved uphill to check on newly-planted poppies. My goal is to have a large mass of oriental poppies in this one bed and not just the two large clumps, so I transplanted a few poppy plants I started in the greenhouse months ago. I’d love to see them fill this space!

Nearby, the delphinium have begun to take off. Soon I’ll be inserting dozens of stakes into these beds and the ones up by the hot tub.

I’ve had slow greenhouse success with seeding delphinium I harvested in these gardens, but slow success is better than no success. The one crazy-large seedling is from an errant russian kale seed.

I weeded my way around the beds of columbine or Aquilegia, excited to see the blossoms plumping.

Then the  willow beckoned again, and I found respite.