Pictures to go with the gardening news

First, meet the blooming flowers:


Casey's loving the warm weather, too:


Here are the potatoes, planted:


And the peas, peeking over the ground:


Chives, popping up where I don't want them. Here, they're in the middle of a walkway between two rows:


Proof that, though today was cold & rainy, there was warmth this weekend: the clothesline.


And, last but not least, meet Ugly Tiller:


Here's the tiller's story. Over the winter, there was a posting on Freecycle for an old tiller that was "hard to start" but it runs. We had wanted a tiller, and had a truck to pick it up... worst case, we had a broken tiller on our hands, right? Afer seeing the thing, I was skeptical it would start, and we didn't try. We figured we'd just leave it until it was warm, and if it works, great, if not, hey, it was free. No harm.

Well, I'm planting peas and Josh says he'll "go look at it." I didn't not have high hopes. A few minutes later, I hear it running! I see him trying to figure out how to get the tines to stop turning, and then walk over to check out the excitement. We have a tiller than works! And then... he asks me, "How do you think you turn it off?"

I look all over. There was no Off switch.

"Do we have to wait for it to run out of gas? I didn't put much in."

Hmm.

Finally, he pulled at a piece with pliers (the choke?), and it turned off. Apparently, this is the only way we have to turn it off. Awesome. We have a tiller.