Anything that can blossom right now seems to be giving its all.

Everywhere I look out back, on the lawn and in and around the garden, something is growing, and I haven’t even planted most of my vegetables yet.

Lots of last year’s onions have reseeded themselves and are now growing a new crop even before planting this year’s seed onions. The tops are wonderful chopped up and added to fresh, green salads. My own lettuce won’t be ready for a couple of weeks, but it will be something to look forward to.

The rhubarb patch is nearly ready for harvesting, then making into jam, pies or cakes.

Alongside the goose pen, the plum blossoms are at their peak. The plums themselves aren’t edible, but the blossoms provide a sweet aroma for a couple of weeks before the petals drift into the adjacent goose pen. (That’s how my goose Plum Blossom got her name several years ago; she hatched just as the last of the plum blossoms were floating to earth.)

I’ve planted the first crops of spinach, lettuce and radishes. As the greens emerge from the now-warming earth, I must remember to keep a very close eye on my geese when I let them out of their pen to graze. I have found from experience that if I turn my back on them for just five minutes, an entire crop can be wiped out by these wonderful feathered friends of mine.

In the goose coop, Sammie and Plum Blossom are faithfully sitting on their nests, so by the end of June, it’s likely that I’ll have a few peeping, fluffy adorable goslings. So what that I already have 13 healthy adults! Watching the babes grow into adolescents and then adults is a pure joy to behold. I consider watching a crop of goslings hatch and grow to be similar to watching beans, lettuce and other vegetables grow from seed to harvest-ready. Of course, I don’t harvest my geese. I just adore them.

Late May and early June are the supreme times for those of us who like to grow our own vegetables and flowers. Perennials, both flowers and vegetables, are beginning to become a part of our everyday enjoyment.

We dug parsnips this week and enjoyed the sweet flavors that come from letting them winter-over.

The tulips have come and gone, and the bright-blue grape hyacinths are also on their way out.

Pansies, both self-seeded and newly planted, are the in their prime right now, and my perennial poppies are beginning to show their huge pods.

The hens and chickens succulents have spread over nearly half of a little stone-circle planter in front of the house, usually reserved for planting pansies.

Memorial Day weekend had been the most popular time for planting the vegetable garden as I was growing up. That was when my mom and dad went to work planting everything from green beans to corn, spinach and lettuce.

With the temperatures warming up earlier in the season now, more of us are planting many vegetables several weeks before we used to, although tradition still leads me to plant most of the garden on Memorial Day weekend, rather than in mid-May.

I have learned that planting early doesn’t necessarily mean that the crop will come in earlier. I’ve tried starting pumpkin, winter squash, gourds and other warm-weather-loving crops inside the house, weeks before they would normally be planted. I have found that both the early-started and those I plant directly into the garden from seed generally catch up with each other.

If Memorial Day weekend is the time for most of your planting, here are a few tips:

* Decide how large you want your garden to be this year; when deciding, consider how much time and effort you want to put into it.

* Fertilize with preferably organic material everything but the potatoes; the spuds don’t particularly like much more than soil to feed them. Also, now’s the time to check the compost pile to see if any is ready for feeding the plants.

* Rototill as you go; sometimes tilling too early gives grass and weeds a real head start before the vegetable seeds are planted.

* When planting tomato plants, line the bottoms of each plant with newspapers, then top with hay to keep grass and weeds down.

* If the beauty of a growing garden isn’t tops in your preference, use newspapers or other materials to line between the rows or between the beds to keep weeds and grass down;

* If your backyard includes chickens, ducks or geese, keep a very close watch on them when you let them out to graze; they naturally gravitate toward tender, sweet greens. If you are able, encircle your vegetable garden with a chicken wire fence to prevent such raids.

* Understand now that some vegetables will do spectacularly well, while others will just not grow.

And most importantly, look around the back, side and front yards. Chances are that nature has produced sweet-smelling lilacs, spring green leaves, delicate wild violets, bright yellow, beautiful dandelions and myriad other gifts from the magical earth.

Eileen M. Adams has been growing vegetable gardens for decades and is always amazed at what the earth can do. She may be reached at [email protected]