These are the seedlings I started before we left for vacation at the beginning of April. They're trying to take over the family room. Most of what you can see there is squash and tomatoes but I've also got peppers, ground cherries, some flowers, and a bunch of herbs going. The squash plants are getting massive. Some of their leaves are as big as my hand and I have to check and adjust them each morning so they don't push other things over. I'm looking forward to getting them into the ground.

With the weather the way it has been this weekend I've been tempted to put plants in the ground now but I know it will be safer to wait a couple more weeks. We've had snow on the Victoria Day weekend before.

I did spend some time outside getting the garden ready though. I got a fantastic little hand tool in Victoria and it was exciting to finally get to use it. It turns the soil really well and digs nice trenches for planting potatoes. I'm taking a bit of a chance with that (see above) but the gardening books I've been reading said I could put potatoes in before the last frost date so I'm trusting them ... and I can always get something else to put in the same spot of they don't work.I've got two kinds of potatoes: some red skinned fingerlings and some with dark purple flesh.

I also planted my carrot seeds and a few chives in the half-barrels at the front of the house. It's quite a warm spot so I'm not too worried about frost damage there. Supposedly the chives will keep diseases away from my carrots. Pretty cool. I sprinkled a package of Old-Fashioned flower mix seeds in the plot in front of the house and put some nasturtium seeds around the bottom of the trellis that is in the same box as the potatoes. The trellis is from last year when I had peas here but ti survived the winder so well I decided not to pull it out.

And a gratuitous dog picture. Abby likes being out with me in the yard. She gets to explore areas she can't usually reach on her lead when we let her outside. From her spot in the back yard this afternoon she could see (and bark at) at least three different dogs and smell innumerable squirrel trails heading for the feeder on our deck. The squirrels were pretty annoyed at me for moving around in the yard so much.