Good morning, gardeners, and welcome to the Saturday Morning Garden Blog!
"In the Spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt."
~ Margaret Atwood
Everyone who grows grass knows that mowing a wet lawn can be an exercise in futility. Wheels slip, clumps form, blades are choked, and the mower defiantly shuts down. Here in the Pacific Northwest, the forecast for the last week of March was rain, rain, and ever more rain. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to give the mower a rest and turn my attention to other Spring chores in the garden.
While Weeds might have made Mary-Louise Parker a small fortune, to me, they're nothing more than an annoyance (i might feel differently about them if they were the same kind of weed featured in the Showtime series). Getting a little weeding done seemed like the perfect place to begin, and the first area i tackled was the herb bed (again, not that kind of herb).
Now that the bed is shipshape, it's clear that the sage and thyme are looking a little shabby. I wonder if it might be useful to whack them down a bit. Obviously, i'll need to fill in the gaps (edible flowers might be a pretty addition), but it's off to a promising start.
In the nearby wine barrels, i planted an assortment of herbs as well because they're quite literally the spice of life (actually, herbs and spices aren't exactly the same thing, but let's not quibble over a technicality). Hopefully, the starts will spread swiftly so they can be regularly snipped for the kitchen - is there anything more satisfying than a pizza with a pile of herbs on top?
Continuing to dodge the downpours, i managed to get the strawberry bed under control as well. Weeds were pulled, soil was added, and fresh netting was draped over the bed to keep the berries safe from beaks and snoots.
The two remaining beds were filled with fresh dirt and wildflower seeds - an offering for the bees. This is a new approach for me, since previous attempts to broadcast wildflower seeds willy-nilly around the property have been disappointing. Hopefully, the seeds will appreciate the dedicated space and come up this year like gangbusters.
By the time the weekend rolls around, the rain will have hopefully let up a bit and the sun can once again paint with shadows in bold, warm strokes. But in the meantime, let's slip into a pair of rubber boots and have a look around the yard:
Lithodora beats the winter blues ...
Baby lilacs stretching towards the sky ...
Clematis tendrils curling around a trellis ...
Along the trails, the trilliums are in bloom ...
As are the stinging nettles, darn them. I'll have to whack them before they get too large ...
Back towards the house again, the blueberry bed is flowering ...
And before long, these hard, green marbles that are actually baby figs will plump up and delight me with their sumptuous sweetness. I'm so looking forward to it ...
When speaking about New England, Mark Twain observed, "In the Spring, i have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours." Springtime weather is tricky to predict most everywhere, i'm guessing, and sure enough, it began to clear here on Thursday. By Friday morning, the field was a glistening carpet of dandelions and the weather was absolutely beautiful ...
The deer and i are pleased.
What's going on in your gardens?