Gardening is not a rational act.
~Margaret Atwood
Our part of the world is definitely past the cold, dead, icy winter, thank the gods and goddesses! I sing hosannas to the heavens, as this year’s El Nino has sent us much moisture this spring. It has been either raining off and on or chilly, but when it’s nice, it’s really nice. We usually get the 50’s and some 60’s this time of year, and the rain means all my gardens are getting watered.
I replanted the back garden again last fall. During the process, I dug up two buckets full of spring bulbs of all kinds. I planted them all back in that garden and they are really popping up! I also had the time to finally set most of my moss stones as terracing for the garden, since it is on a hill and really needed it. It was a terrible mess. I put a path through the middle and I am still working on a few sections. I also plan to expand my perimeter again. I do this each year, stealthily, so Mr. Light won’t notice I’m taking more of his lawn. He’s actually not as lawn oriented as he used to be. Because of this, I may be able to talk him into a perennial garden under the tree in the front yard. My reasoning to him will be that he wouldn’t have to mow it. That’s a project for later. The convincing Mr. Light part, not the planting part! 🤣
I’m scouting all the gardens to see what‘s popping up. The iris reticulata are pretty much done but the daffodils are working their way through the blooms. The perennials I transplanted into the remodel garden are peeking out of the ground. Looks like everyone made it.
Although most of the old whiskey barrels around the property are disintegrating, one still holds together and houses the heirloom rhubarb from my MIL’s house. I dug it up when we were cleaning out the house and it’s doing quite well. The original plant was probably about 67 years old. This is all pretty much one plant — they spread underground so I could divide this one right now but I don’t know where I’d put it.
The raised bed garden next to this barrel has been sinking alarmingly since last spring. I suspected the ground squirrels had gotten around to excavating under the patio. If it isn’t raining later this morning I’ll scatter some MoleMax, and get them moved out. I think I’m going to have to dig up the garden and put down hardware cloth to keep them out. They ate some tulip bulbs from below. I found the wilted leaves and pulled them out of the ground. Grrrrr!
It’s been a fairly cold spring, which means the apricots are just now getting buds on them. I was looking at previous year’s March photos and I ran across a photo of the same apricot in full bloom on March 22, 2015. What a difference from this year! I took this picture on Tuesday, March 26.
March 2015:
A favorite spring flower of mine is the anemone blanda, also known as windflower. I have a little blue one that popped up years ago just randomly in a weird spot. This winter it was inadvertently halfway buried under a paver so I uncovered it. I think it will perk up.
I also have anemone sylvestrus, or snowdrop anemone. It comes up a little later. I will have to move the plants this spring because they like shade and the tree they were under is gone. They are in the raised bed garden the squirrels are excavating so it needed done anyway.
The lilies in the front pots are popping up. The bachelor buttons are bigger right now but the lilies are going to fill the pot eventually. Yeah!
This sedum was on the sale table at a neighboring nursery in July, and I bought two 2” pots for $.50 each. They sat on my porch all summer and although I watered them, I thought they were done for in late summer. Planted them anyway. Nope!
Along with the plant photos from 2015, I ran across some really cute photos of Charlie. We had just adopted him Valentine’s Day 2015, so he was a skinny kid who wasn’t really sure what the heck was going on. In this photo he found a spot to nap while we built his new fence. It was a chilly day that day also.
He was napping today so I got the stink eye when I took his photo to compare.
Spring has definitely been springing for us all, with the wild weather to go with it. I hear on the news about big snowstorms, lots of rain, tornadoes and flooding in all parts of the country and I think of all my fellow SMGBer’s. Stay safe out there, and I hope you can get your hands in the dirt!
Goodbye, March, I’m not sad to see you go.
March so fickle, March so fair,
Pouting, shy, with wind-blown hair,
Nut-brown shawl and crocus cup,
Smile that lights the whole world up.
~Sara L. Vickers Oberholtzer, "The Lady March," Souvenirs of Occasions, 1892
h/t to www.quotegarden.com/… for this lovely poem.