Spring! Things are shaping up in the garden. This past weekend, I hauled in my first harvest of the year – rhubarb. I proceeded to turn those first stalks into one of my favorite spring desserts: strawberry rhubarb galette. My family devoured it. It was gone in minutes.

Spring with certainty also means the first gardening fails. This year it seems to be birds. They completely raided the first crop of peas that I had planted in mid-April and munched on the lettuce and kale transplants I had planted at the end of April. I retaliated by sowing more lettuce (May 9) and more peas (May 14) and in both instances the birds have not shown much interest. So far.

I had planted seed potatoes (Banana fingerling) on May 9 and today the first plants showed their leaves, so I added another 3 to 4 inches of soil. Today I also transplanted my tomato seedlings (Brandywine, Striped German and Boxcar Willie), only five plants total this year and interplanted them with basil and marigolds. The basil is Nufar and the marigolds are from our local farmer’s market. And the leeks are in as well. The only seedlings I still have going on my back porch now are cucumbers and watermelon.