Wordless Wednesday

April Delights

I wish I had a video camera so I could take you on a virtual tour of our yard.  Everyday seems more spectacular.  Trees are leafing out, many things are budding.  Crab apple, redbud, dogwood, deciduous magnolias, and azaleas all blooming at once! 

We've just come inside from covering up plants.  The weather today is to be first crazy stormy and then the temps to plunge from 70 this afternoon to 29 degrees tonight.  Many things may be too tender to endure.  But we only have so much remay fabric.  We covered the strawberries, in full bloom, the potatoes newly sprouted and quite tender.  And the spring veggies and salad garden, probably could take it but very tender.

Yesterday in the sunshine:

 Taters on the right, beets, spinach and garlic in the middle, salad to the left

 Baby salad greens and peas on the trellis

It has been a strange spring weather wise and I guess this is the new normal in our days of climate change.  Lots of wild extremes and tough storms.  But plants just go on and do their thing.  We hope the blueberries will not be harmed, nor all the brand new leaves on trees, but there is nothing to be done but wait and see.

We did cover this little maple (to the left, yes, that is a dwarf tree), its been nipped in years past.  Always the Japanese maples seem to be among the first trees to leaf out.  Here you can see Davids big project from last weekend.  He moved this path that previously went to the left of the dogwood in the center of the frame past that little maple.  He so carefully moved everything around that you can hardly tell!

One last thing to share, this flowering cherry Hally Jolivette.  This has been its best season ever.  Right outside my office window the tree has gotten fuller with the dainty pink and white flowers everyday for two weeks and now is starting to wind down.  I imagine the cold nights will be the end of the flowers for this season.  But what a joy it's been.

Taxes finished- now I can fully enjoy the season

Dear friends-
Apologies once again for the long dry spell.  It's spring, what more can I say?  I just finished my taxes, phew, another year I managed to sort them out by myself with the help of Turbo Tax. Self-employment has some downsides, not the least of which is paying all 14% of your own social security, hopefully I'll actually get to collect back on that one day.

The past month has been filled with gardening both home and in town.  In the past few weeks I've enrolled about 15 new families bringing the total number of families in the three community gardens up to around 40.  I've only got a few plots left which is great.   It's the time of year when everyone is excited, the gardens are looking tidy and the new spring veggies are growing fast and green.  Hopefully the enthusiasm will continue,  there are always folks that flake out when it starts to get hot.

 On the home front- just a few highlights from the last few weeks:

New growth and cones on the evergreens, I roam around petting and fondling the tender tips

Weeping redbud Traveler.   My friend Michele says 

"Don't you want to sit and stare at that for about 8 hours and see how it changes you?"

If only I could find a spare 8 hours...

Apple trees in bloom, fortunately ours did not get nipped by the late frost last week

Pollen on the pond like marbled paper or chunky aggregate granite.  It's been so thick for weeks you could chew the air and everyone's complaining of scratchy throats, snotty noses, runny eyes and dusty houses.

Heavy rains in early April allowed the giant carp to swim up stream to spawn for the first time in several years.  Once their work is done, they die and become food for the critters.

Pinkster Azaleas in bloom.  They are finished now, the mountain laurel will be next...

That was just a taste really.  Been eating piles of asparagus, fresh baby green salads, radishes, finishing off the collards and kale from the winter, working away at last years storage crops, sweet potatoes, garlic, frozen tomato sauce and black-eyed peas, strawberries frozen and now fresh.

There have been lots of snakes of all kinds, new turtles come to court Gertrude, lizards galore and two gray tree frogs have taken up residence in the rain barrel.  They look like soft putty slapped down on the rim of the gray trash can, I can't put the lid on tight for fear of crushing them.

The lilac and dianthes are in bloom and their heavenly scents waft around the garden and into the open windows, rafts of blue and purple columbines adorn the front walkway with splashes of white daisies among them and dots of bright orange poppies scattered through.  The roses and peonies are about to put on the best show of our spring season.  I'll do my best to post some photos.

Now that the weather has settled down and nights are above 50 degrees for the most part, this coming week will be time to start planting the summer garden; tomatoes, beans, squash and cukes.  Once that is done, maybe we can slow down, but there is still lots of weeding, mulching and plant rearranging to be done...

Nine Degrees!

Well winter arrived with a vengeance. I know people up north will think I'm silly when I say its been really cold. I know compared to places where the mercury has been below zero for days that 9 degrees could seem like a heatwave, but its cold in this house, despite burning the stove hotter than normal, I can feel it seeping in through the windows and the walls. And it's not going to warm up much for several days.

I'm so glad I do not live in the north. We took a stroll down to the creek this afternoon to check out the ice and there was quite a bit decorating the edges of the creek around the rocks, abstract patterns created by sheets of ice thawing and refreezing. It's a rare sight around here and made everything extra sparkly in the sunlight.

I've been meaning to post these photos of the garden taken on January 3rd. This time last year I had made a big harvest of veggies just before a cold snap. This time I put the blanket over it all and am hoping for the best. I have not peeked under there but I will tomorrow and see how things fared. Monday I harvested tatsoi and kale and last week I actually harvested a bit of lettuce that was protected under the big leaves of the broccoli plants.

For this design, I pounded 2 foot pieces of re-bar into the ground about a foot deep and then slipped PVC pipe over the re-bar to form the arch. The remay is two layers thick and I weight it down with bricks and open it up when its warm, close it at night. I tried clear plastic to see if it would be warm enough for things to actually grow but it got too wet inside and things just started to rot so I scratched that idea and went back to the remay row cover.

The veggies are all tucked in and I hope you are. Keep Warm!