This early spring/non-existant winter has got everything off to a great start in the garden this year. Daffodils and hyacinths are plentiful, the forsythia and spirea have bloomed, and the first rhubarb stems are breaking through the crust of dried leaf mulch one bed over from where the jagged leaves of new raspberry canes are emerging.
As usual, I pulled the random collection of potted shrubs, trees we bought years ago and haven’t found a permanent home for yet, and other plants I didn’t know what else to do with out of the shed and into the sun. Our yard probably isn’t big enough to absorb this random collection of red oaks, maples, butterfly bushes, brooms, and other things, but that didn’t stop me buying another dogwood and our first plum at the garden center last weekend. (I’m hankering for more fruit trees this year.) I built a new raised raspberry bed, spread all the compost, and turned one vegetable bed before breaking something in my foot (hopefully just a toe) yesterday, so hopefully these pics won’t represent both the beginning and the end of my garden labor for the season.
The bees are out in earnest and I’ve even seen a few moths fluttering around the flowers. We’ve had our first random bear cubs wandering around downtown, so it’s probably time to take the bird-feeders down lest we attract some unwanted visitors.
I haven’t had to mow the grass yet, but I confess to getting the strimmer out to trim the verge here and there. The local yard crews are in full whir (eager to start earning some money again) and it won’t be long before my yard starts to look leggy in comparison to the neatness next door.
In light of the foot, it’s time to look at the chore list and decide what must be done, and what can wait until I’m more mobile. The back gate that a taxi driver knocked over on New Year’s Eve is still broken, but there’s no urgency on repairing that (there are several other gates to the yard). I have several big privet bushes I was nearly finished uprooting, and they will have to go so I can get that dogwood and some rhododendrons in the ground. I may just have to get a chainsaw to finish that job; it would be faster than hacking away with a mattock.
Hopefully there’ll be more blooms next month. The first ranunculus is flower is about to open, the azaleas are studded with tiny buds, the plum is beginning to blossom, and there are even a few strawberry plants about to flower. So, there should be plenty of color to keep both the bees and the humans happy for the next little while, even if I’m largely a spectator for the next few weeks…
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I just started some alyssium seeds a few weeks ago 🙂 Mine said they are annuals. Are they self sowers, or do you have a different variety?
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I don’t actually know. I call this alyssium because when I start it from seed the resulting plant looks very similar, albeit much smaller. This plant was here before I bought the property and is able to overwinter, while the annual alyssium I start from seed rarely makes it through winter. So, maybe it’s not true alyssium, but something similar?
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