The dog, the garden, the rhubarb

Callie was happy yesterday afternoon when we went out for our walk, and so was I. For Callie it was because she got to spend most of the day outdoors. We left the doors wide open, and some windows too. The sky was hazy, so it didn't get as warm as the weather services had predicted but, at 24ºC, we weren't complaining.

For me, the happiness had to do with getting some garden work done. At about 10, I went out and fired up the rototiller. But first, I dug four or five wheelbarrow loads of compost from one of our two piles and spread it all over the garden plot. Then I tilled it all in. Tilling also uprooted weeds that had started growing in the earth.

Above, you can see the two rogue rhubarb plants that had come up in the garden plot this spring. In that photo, I hadn't yet finished tilling up the whole plot, which we enlarged a few months ago. I stopped to harvest one rhubarb plant. In the photo on the right, you can see that the plant is gone. I dug up the root with The tiller and a shovel.

I will harvest the second rhubarb plant this coming week. We have half a dozen plants growing in a different spot, out in the back corner of the yard, so we don't need these two, Above, you can see that there is one corner of the garden plot that I didn't till, because I already have some little collard greens growing there.

Here's the harvested rhubarb. The stems, leaves removed, will make quite a few tarts, crumbles, or jars of confiture.