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| Daffodils are blooming! |
Our month changed yesterday with the full moon. Blustery Winds/ Awakening has stepped aside and a new month begun. To sum up the old:
Our weather has been very erratic. We have all of the seasons here. Sometimes all in a very condensed span of time! This morning it alternates between snow flurries and sunny patches. Right now it is sunny and snowing at the same time. Last week the temperature was in the 70s. That's how it goes here.
In spite of the "confused" weather, nature is moving ahead - awakening- here.
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| Bloodroot emerging |
Bloodroot have emerged in our woods...
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| Bloodroot only open on sunny days |
... and violets are blooming, giving off their sweet scent. Willows and honeysuckles are leafing out.
In the garden:
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| Allium bed is awake |
the garlic, shallots and walking onions are up, and the rhubarb is emerging.
All of my plants have been started and are up under the lights.
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| Sunflower seedlings |
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| Sweet potato sprouts |
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| Seedling trays under lights and heat tent |
I've taken the cool weather plants outside to harden off before setting them out in the garden. I have already sown some lettuce, spinach and half of my peas. Tomorrow I plan to sow more peas, my beets and carrots, and plant my seed potatoes. I certainly hope I'm not planting in a snow flurry.
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| Bob prunes an apricot tree |
Bob has finished pruning all of the fruit trees and is planning out the next porch renovation project.
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| New porch site |
This new porch will replace one that was removed last year. It will connect to and complete the existing porch on the house's east side. What remains of the back deck which you see at the left edge of the picture will be removed and replaced with a patio.
This year we are making more changes to the garden. We had been contemplating what changes to make last year. Then, when the trench was dug for the geothermal system, our decisions were made for us.
When the trench was dug, they didn't actually dig up any of the garden, but they piled the dirt on top of 2/3 of each bed on the extreme south edge of the garden. Now the area is covered with uneven lumps of clay and is basically a big mess. We had been considering what to do with this area because its productivity had waned, in part from lack of adequate sunlight. We have decided to abandon it, returning it to lawn area. We will keep the undamaged 1/3 of the beds, using them for future strawberries, fall raspberries, compost and straw storage.
To compensate for the loss of some of this planting area, we're removing the herb bed and returning that space to annual crops. I've not been using the herb bed as much as formerly, so it's not a huge loss, but it has been a chore to dismantle.
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| Herb bed as it had been |
We had to dig out and remove roughly 200 bricks. These will be reused elsewhere. We then had to dig out large amounts of lovage, sorrel and chives, not to mention weeds! We finished this job last week.
Digging out bricks. Who needs a gym?
Last autumn, we also dug out all of our raspberry plants. Some were in the way of the trench digging. All were showing signs of disease, so we decided it was time to start fresh.
We will put half a dozen black raspberry plants next to the currants. Another half dozen fall red raspberry plants will be put in at the south edge of the vegetable plots. That's about a quarter of the amount that we had, but just two of us don't need so many berries. I have many other interesting things to spend my time on besides gardening.
Our birthdays are here in the early spring. The weather was less than spectacular for both, so no nice walks this year. We each had a nice take out lunch for our day. I got a "chore free" day and some new harp music. My library is now far larger than my repertoire, so I need to get busy! Bob got a new sweater vest. He's so skinny that he likes these to help him stay warm. I refer to them as his "artificial fat". We also went to the art museum on the Cornell campus for his day.
That's all the news for now. By next time things will be progressing in the garden and hopefully the weather will have become more consistent.
Don't forget to look for the signs of awakening in and around you.
Happy spring,
Kathleen and Bob
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| Violets are up! |
