First Berries and a Little Junking with the Sisters

It's that time of year--strawberries, mulberries and rhubarb are ripening, asparagus is on the table weekly, and many herbs are ready for harvest. This is the first batch of strawberries from the patch we planted last year. They look and taste perfect.

Keeping weeds out of strawberries is a real challenge. If you have a secret I'd like to know it. We've learned to hoe it early, keep the weeds pulled and mulch with straw--but even with all that the weeds keep creeping in.

And the asparagus! It has decided to seed itself in all sorts of places--like right under the new currant bushes and in the gravel at the edge of my parking place. These are NOT the places I would like it to be, but the plants have been thriving in that general area for years now, coming up in this weird assortment of daylilies, hibiscus and other things that planted themselves where I thought my rhubarb would take over.

The rhubarb is still there, cuddled up close to the daylilies. Then last year I stuck a couple of currant bushes in a bare place and this year that is exactly where the asparagus has decided to go. Sometimes I think we'd do better to just sow seeds and plants and see what happens; that's how it often ends up looking anyway.

My seven sisters and I have designated the day before our family reunion as "Sister Day." We bring plants from our gardens to trade. Here's the back of my car before we left home:

This year I came home with two baby redbud trees, some pretty pinks, a Shasta Daisy, some forget-me-nots, a black-eyed Susan, and a couple other things. All are already in the ground and look good.

We usually find something to do together too; one year we visited the Dolly Sods Wilderness area, and last year we went to junk shops. This year Judy found Dot's Whatnot Shop as a place for us to visit. My. Goodness. Dot has a ton of stuff from vintage to antique to dollar-store. I came home with a lot of things I plan to re-sell on eBay. So far I've sold a couple of them and I have a lot more to list. It was a relief to find I chose well. Since I'm new at this selling business, I'm feeling my way as to what might sell and what won't. Getting all our finds into Mary's Dodge was interesting, especially since all 8 of us also had to fit in there. Mary and Julie did some creative packing to make it work.

More pics to post tomorrow!