Despite the warming temps, gardening in May in Finland is still mostly for the intrepid. This was proven last night when the thermometer plunged to 4°C for a couple hours and I crossed my fingers, hoping that the residual warmth of the day would keep everything safe. It did, mostly, and today was over 20°C with no more cold snaps in sight. June is tomorrow and soon even the most risk-averse gardeners out here will be getting to work. Meanwhile, I’m a month ahead and maybe gloating a tiny bit about it.

One — We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Asparagus Bed

Sixty-one grams isn’t much to brag about, but when you’ve been nursing an asparagus patch for years and this is the first time you’ve actually harvested enough to cook a meal with, it feels significant. I pan-fried them in butter and topped them with a couple of sunny-side-up eggs — a perfectly reasonable breakfast for one person — and then made the strategic error of offering my son a bite.

Rookie mistake. Half my breakfast disappeared before I fully understood what was happening. On the bright side: he likes asparagus now. On the more logistical side: I have already put in an order for 30 more crowns arriving this week. So in a few years, we will hopefully have enough for everybody.

Two — Operation Sauna Deck Begins

My husband and father-in-law have embarked on rebuilding the deck of our sauna building. This first required several hours of hacking through the feral growth that had essentially swallowed the south wall. Most of that mess you see is from a grapevine that’s been doing whatever it wanted for decades. We didn’t remove the roots — they’re still down there, biding their time — so it’ll come back next year once the new deck is in place. This time, I’m going to actually trim it before it goes full kaiju on us again.

I’m also very excited about scavenging from the old planks they’re pulling out. Those are earmarked for terracing the south slope next to the house, which brings us to…

Three — The South Slope

This is the sunniest part of the property, and I’ve been meaning to do something useful with it for years. But “sloped terrain” plus “never enough time or energy” equals “problem for future me.” Well, future me finally arrived this spring and said screw it. Instead of worrying about building anything, I decided to just map it out with temporary containers and see if the concept works. If it does, I will sink in the reclaimed planks and do it properly next year.

The plan is to run a weave trellis along the wall using those bamboo poles and some twine. Current residents: eight tomatoes — three ‘Gardener’s Delight’ (cherry), one ‘Yellow Submarine’ (cherry), one ‘Green Grape’, one ‘Brad’s Atomic Grape’, one ‘Quatro’ (plum), and one ‘Organza’ (plum). Plus two potato varieties in the black grow bags: ‘Lady Alicia’ (floury) and ‘Annabelle’ (waxy). I’ve got ten more bags and two more potato varieties incoming next week, at which point this slope will officially be earning its keep as an adjunct vegetable garden.

Four — Big Tree

This crabapple was a scrawny little thing when we moved in. Now it’s our most prolific fruit tree by a considerable margin. I’ve only harvested it a couple of times, but it makes lovely juice — the kind of tart, jewel-toned stuff that feels like drinking autumn. This might be a good year to do it again, since the two trees that grow actual eating apples are elderly and not producing like they used to.

Right now, though, it’s all blossom. The pollinators have been working their way through the fruit trees’ staggered flowering. I am merely the staff that maintains the buffet.

Five — Little Tree

Last year, a tiny rowan sapling appeared in my front flower bed. I promptly forgot about it because it was tucked so close to the railing that I didn’t notice it again until this spring, when it had grown tall enough to peer over the railing and watch me work on the terrace.

We don’t actually have a rowan anywhere else on the property. Apparently, the birds considered this unacceptable and took matters into their own beaks.

I’m going to dig it up and move it over to the hedgerow by the road, where it can grow into its full dramatic self. Free tree, delivered by airmail.

Six — The Divas Have Landed

The nights have finally hit 10°C, which means the tender plants can stop sulking in their pots and actually get their roots into the earth. Today I cleaned up and amended the first of three old strawberry beds so I could start planting dahlias. The four in this bed are ‘Impression Famoso’, ‘Arabian Night’, ‘Sunlady’, and ‘Fascination’. I also scattered some ‘Cantaloupe’ calendula seed in there to fill in the gaps underneath them.

It’ll be nice to have some of my cutting flowers visible from the kitchen window instead of tucked away in the field where they’ve lived in past years. Gardening closer to the coffee pot: highly recommended.

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Thanks for visiting — see what the rest of the SoS crew is up to over at Jim’s page!