The spring is sprung, the grass is ris.

Well it’s almost official,  barring any accidents or freaks of nature,  the long winter seems to be over.  According to the calendar it has been spring since Sunday and in fact since then the temperatures outside have all jumped 5 or 6° higher,  doors and windows are being opened and the sound of the birds chirping outside have become a daily feature,  so maybe,  just maybe,  the spring is here. ( it is at this point that something in the memory jogs and people start remembering snow falling in Barga during Easter,  hopefully not something that will happen this year)

It’s time once again to start work on the barganews vegetable garden after the long winter layoff.  It’s early days yet for planting as the nights can still be quite cold but there is still quite a lot of work to be done preparing the ground for this year’s planting.

Two tractor loads of mature manure will be delivered later on this week thanks to the sterling work of  Paolo Lazzarini.  Once that has been spread across the two fields,  the tractor can come in and deep plough the ground.  Before all that can happen the bamboo trestles that held last year’s tomato plants will have to be removed, the electric fence dismantled  and a bit of general cleaning up done right across the garden.

Last year we planted some strawberry plants,  none of which produced any  strawberries as they were planted at the wrong time and in the wrong place and so before the tractor ploughs them into oblivion we have a chance to move them to a sunnier safer position.

One of the most satisfying aspects of the vegetable garden is the amount of interest shown in in this project from the barganews  readers who have been following right from day one.  Sometimes that interest is not just virtual but is actually translated into a physical experience.  Such was the case this week,  when into the fields walked three visitors,  two from Canada and one from USA,  and all of them eager to roll up their sleeves,  pick up some tools  and  actually get down to some hard graft.

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David Henry from Halifax Nova Scotia,  restauranteur and keen photographer was here for his first visit,  but the other two, Heidi Burden, a professional gardener from Portland Rochdale Maine USA  and Jesse Henry,  a hotelier in Maine, USA , sharp eyed photographer and one of the most loyal readers of barganews ( there are probably more comments on the site from Jess than any other reader)  have been regular visitors to Barga  over the last few years and have followed and documented the barganews vegetable garden right from day one. ( article here)

Spring is sprung, the grass is ris.
I wonders where the birdies is.
They say the birds is on the wing.
Ain’t that absurd?
I always thought the wing was on the bird.