In the fall we got some raised garden beds and filled them with leaves an grass clippings. By spring those had really compressed down, so we put some organic vegie garden soil on top and set to planting. April was mild, but May was a lot colder than usual, so I misjudged a lot of things. I planted sugar peas from Elizabeth indoors and then transferred them outside, but they were not hardy enough to survive. 🙁 The beans went straight into the ground but too early/cold, so only a few made it. Apparently I bought kale varieties that were extremely delicious to slugs, so although they all sprouted and good a good start, every new leaf gets eaten up no mater how much slug-hunting we do. On the bright side, we have extreme amounts of chard, the herbs look great, the broad beans and pumpkins are flowering, the strawberry patch has grown into where we encouraged it, an the rest of the lawn has happily converted to a very productive flower meadow.
A slide show on how it started…
Graham watering the new seedings. This was only a few weeks ago; it grows fast whe there is 20 hours of sun each day! 
The new planter beds ready for veggies! 
the peas all sprouted and gre so well (river of tears emoji) 
baby chard sprouts 
Peonies just starting to do it 
Not all the daffodils we planted in 2023 came back, but a lot did.
…and how it’s going:
Front door garden 
the herb planter 
bird’s eye view of the flower beds 
The rhubarb really likes its new spot. This is post-harvest! 
front walkway hostas and salvia, interspersed with garlic as deer repellant. 
the peonies seem to be thriving, although they all fall over in the rain 
cut peonies need to shed ants for a while after being cut 
Some volunteer poppies came up where we did not expect them, including the mint pot.
In the ‘orchard’ section, we have some the apple tree flowered moderately and seems to have a lot of green fruit and also some strange insects (stay tuned on that one). The big highbush blueberry has lots of fruit as usual, and the little one has none (as usual). The blue raspberry is going bananas and spreading out all over with lots of little fruits. I liberated a cane in our neighbourhood (outside the fence, obs) since we liked the variety, and it has taken root, sent up some suckers, and also has a bunch of fruit. More pictures of that when the fruit is ready.