Did I mention the cherries from our tree are ready? Oh, right, this morning I posted about picking cherries. Yesterday, Elly, Ken, George and I were out for about an hour maybe less. As I mentioned in this mornings post, the cherries we harvested yesterday were way more than we could eat so we were taking them to the JANO Sakura Picnic.

We did exactly that and we came home empty handed. Those that weren’t eaten at the picnic, people stuffed them in ziplock bags and took them home. Not a single cherry left. Sigh. We came home cherry-less. (Which was the idea!)

Over the last week or so, we’ve been watching the cherry tree in our backyard. It seems the time is finally here to pick them. It’s a balance of waiting to just the right moment and saving the cherries from the birds.

So Elly, Ken, George and I headed out at about 11:30 yesterday morning to start picking what seemed to be the ripest cherries.

So I have just about finished planting my garden for this year. This Memorial Day weekend, I took Friday off so I could have a four day weekend. I’m glad I did as we expanded the size of this years garden in the back yard. It’ probably 25’ by 15’ or there abouts.

Friday I spend pretty much all day tilling. I rented a roto tiller from Home Depot and started in at about 9:45. I didn’t finish until about 6PM. I only rented it for 24 hours so I had to return it by 9:15 on Saturday. I wouldn’t have minded going through one last time of turning the garden. But it was sufficient. It was a long day made better by my daughter’s boyfriend and my youngest son chipping in to help with the tilling.

Just noticed that my seed catalog arrived today. I believe that I asked them to send me on via the web. Considering the fact that the weather is clearly getting warmer — it was gorgeous today here in Cleveland — it’s time to start planning for the garden.

If I’m not mistaken, the catalog was recommended to me by a colleague of mine at work. I have yet to actually look at what is in the catalog, but if I recall correctly they offer some very interesting seeds that I’d never be able to find at a local garden store. In particular, it had some asian vegetable seeds that I wanted.

This year I think I am going to double the size of the garden. As last year was my first time with a full blown garden, I didn’t do too well on the spacing of the plants. I also started too late in the season to be really successful. So this year I hope to start earlier.

Speaking of which, it’s also time to start my Sakura Watch for this year. We have a cherry tree in the back yard, and last year I took pictures of the buds to try and estimate when it would be in full blossom. Based on that I was hoping to head out to the Brookside Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks to check out the 130 or so cherry trees donated by JANO.

Oh, and I almost forgot! We have a bunch of cherry seeds to plant! Time to yank the seeds out of the refrigerator and get them started.