We had a fairly productive weekend.  Last year we had planted some root ginger (from local supermarket), it had grown well but died back during the winter (we had tried to over winter it in the house).  It has come back nicely.  Similarly, the chives, mint thyme are coming back strongly. 

 

I found some turmeric root in our local farmers market; it is part of the same family as ginger so we are going to try the same technique.

 

Also we planted three angelica plants (a large biennial, which can exceed 5 foot).  The young stems can be candied for cake making.   More mundane tasks completed: set up sprinklers, weeding and put down some mulch to stop the weeds re-appearing.

This weekend we attempted to cut down the amount of crab grass we get this year (had planned to do it last weekend but rain was terrible, for once it was better to be living in the north of New Jersey.  Lawn is now "thatched" - raked over to remove the dead stuff, fertilized and treted with a dressing anti crab grass weeder.  We even turned over our compost heap.  Not bad going following a winter of inactivity. 

 

We went to our favourite herb farm (Well Sweep - listed in Links) in New Jersey and bought some plants (hardy lavendar, angellica and bay).  We did some online shopping and put in an order to Richters (link below) - I am going to have a go at tobacco, chile, peppers and sunflower from seed.