Um…it’s very boring around the hugelkultur bed, so I’m working on other tasks. Middle of next month (our traditional end-of-frost period), I’ll be planting the hell out of the bed. At the moment, it’s got several peas, a couple of sweet peas, a peppermint*, an elderberry*, borage, and kale – all of which are gamely growing in the unseasonably hot & dry spring.

I reset the dry stone wall mini-terraces above the pond – I’m also gearing up to dig a swale & berm to help control our usual crazy storm runoff….of course, the weather is exceptionally strange this year, and I’m having to set the swale from memory of where the worst waterlogging actually occurs. After I redid the stone walls, I planted the lower terrace with borage, lupines, and kale. The upper terrace will get the claytonia & good king henry, I think, as the sun’s not as fierce there at the edge of the shady border. I’m hoping they like it – I may plant them in the front yard instead, as it’s much cooler (neither one loves heat much).

• The peppermint & elderberry are transplants from elsewhere in the yard – I don’t mind peppermint running around a less-formal garden like this, and elderberries are just good. Love them.

The first photo is of the little terraces I cleaned up today – the second is the faithful rhubarb, my favorite dessert vegetable.
The other photos show a few of the impending arrivals for the bed – amaranth & a lone goji bush. I’m pondering taking a cutting from the goji to try and propagate a second, but I’m not sure whether it’s worth it. I hear they get big and sprawl-y fairly quickly.

In other news, the rhubarb is going gangbusters & we will be eating some soon! :-)