This week has been really chilly in the garden. Temperatures haven't exceeded the high 50s, and it's been raining off and on for nearly a week. It’s been very wet however this is what is typical for April in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

With the lower temperatures and the constant onslaught of water, the garden has been progressing. In my front flower bed, I'm seeing signs of sprouting wildflowers. It just fills my heart with pure glee to see the seeds I've sown starting to germinate and show their existence. Other seeds that have started to sprout are the Buttercrunch Lettuce seeds. All the rain has really sped up their germination, but I'm very pleased to see them peeking out of the soil. As for other plants that already sprouted in the previous week, they seem to be doing very well. All the potatoes that I planted in the back vegetable bed seem to be growing a little bit more each day and don't seem to be affected by the rain, but only time will tell if the potatoes are going to be successful.

Also, with these successes, I have acquired some new additions to the garden. I planted a couple of sets of Huckleberry Gold potato seeds in a grow bag on my back porch, as well as bought two trees: a Meyer Lemon and a Key Lime. I was so excited to plant my first set of citrus trees. I can't wait to see them flourish in their pots. The Meyer Lemon tree came with a flower, as well as the start of a teeny tiny lemon. It's positively adorable, and I hope they both flourish. These two little citrus trees will have a new home on the back porch when the weather starts to get warm again, but for now, they are living in my dining room keeping the houseplants company.

With these little triumphs, there have also been many challenges this week. As I mentioned, it has been raining and with the rain, there has also been some flooding. Unfortunately, a portion of my vegetable bed with my broccoli sprouts got the worst of it. It wasn't entirely flooded, but a corner of the bed became inundated with water, which I think washed away my chamomile seeds and a portion of my dill seeds. I'm going to wait and see if any of the seeds survived, but in the meantime, I'm trying to remedy the situation. I dug out the soil and lined the part of the bed that keeps flooding with rocks to make a tiny decorative pond to catch any overflow of water accumulating in the vegetable bed. I hope it will elevate the appearance of the garden and vegetables, and it will be lovely to plant more herbs or even flowers in that bed to accompany the broccoli and lettuce, as well as framing the pond to make it look as natural as possible

Of course, this wasn't the only challenge I faced this week. I've been having issues with critters in my yard. I believe squirrels have been digging up portions of my mushroom bed, and I'm hoping they haven't been munching on my growing mycelium spawn. I would love to dig in the bed to check, but I don't want to disturb any growth, so I've been covering the holes with additional straw and hoping for the best. I feel confident that I will still have mushroom growth because I have a hefty brick of spawn in the bed.

But that's not the only critter story. I believe a crow or other bird has been feasting on my pea and bean seeds. My entire row of beans was demolished, and my tiny pea seeds were just lying outside the dirt, dug up. I quickly replanted the peas and thankfully had more bean seeds so I could try again. I even planted extra seeds for good measure. Then the next day, my beans were dug up again, but they were not taken this time, so I just pushed them back into the dirt. Now I'm looking for additional methods to prevent this from happening again. I usually plant marigolds or use cayenne pepper as a preventive critter measure, so I will be on the hunt for bloomed marigolds in the upcoming week because, as of now, I only have seeds, and that's not going to get me very far. But alas, these are the risks that you take when you direct sow seeds. There's nothing I can really do but be vigilant in my efforts to keep my beds intact.

Here is this week's update. As I mentioned earlier, it has been a busy and rainy week. I am excited to share my next update and demonstrate how much more my garden has grown. In the meantime, you can find the full gallery of my growing garden and some native plants that I am allowing to decorate my backyard below.