Just a quick note to let you know that spring has officially arrived at my garden this past Friday, April 3rd. Why do I say this? Because this was the day upon which I noted the first tiny red nubbins of my rhubarb plants starting to push their way to the soil surface.
Sure there has already been a little green growth on the walking onions and the parsley from last season has already been showing signs of renewed growth but they don’t count! It’s the emergence of the rhubarb that puts me into the mood for the upcoming garden season and starts my mouth watering at just the thought of the first rhubarb pie. We ran out of rhubarb from the freezer months ago. The four large plants that I now have producing are just not enough, but never fear I have a fifth smaller plant in waiting to be divided into two and planted in the bed that I prepared for them last fall.
The first year that the rhubarb was planted I just watched the three newly planted crowns grow. One was just a single bud but it survived and thrived. This one I split into three pieces the following spring. This past summer the two larger of them produced nicely along with the two original plants. That third little plant is now large enough to split and will provide two more good sized crowns that will begin producing next year. That will give me six good size producing plants. Hopefully there will be a third piece of the plant left when I divide it so I can replant it and have another plant to split again next year. That will then give me a total of eight plants which should be enough to provide us with rhubarb pies the year round for years to come.
So spring is finally here and the garden work begins in ernest.