Second Thaw

It's just January 15 and the garden has already gone from a substantial cover of snow to no snow twice.  This afternoon I slipped on my green garden shoes and headed out to take some pictures in the garden.

Some of these strawberry plants look pretty good in spite of the fact they still have their runners and dead leaves plus a few weeds.  Somehow we just didn't get this bed cleaned up before the snow hit.

Ed did get a bed of strawberry plants trimmed and set out late last fall.  They look quite nice and don't appear to have frost heaved even though they were newly transplanted .

This time of year Ed's stone paths make all the difference in the garden.  They allow me to walk all around inspecting the garden beds which contain  muddy, waterlogged and, in some places, still frozen soil.  My feet were nice and dry when I finished my garden tour.

I was attracted to the rusty color of Ed's carefully trimmed and mulched Siberian iris.  There is no sign of new green here and that is a good thing.  It is still only January!

It was comforting to see the green of chrysanthemum plants peeking out from the stems meant to protect them.  So far they have done their job and our hopes for the return of the chrysanthemums in the spring are still alive and well.

This Dianthus looks spectacular spilling over onto the stone path.  The tiny green plants are the chervil that I planted last fall.  One of the fine herbs, it is easy to move around the garden just by laying the stalks with ripe seeds where you want them to grow.  Early in the spring I will have flavorful green leaves to brighten up  salads made with lettuce grudgingly purchased from the supermarket.  It will help to dull the pain!

Near the end of my tour, I did discover that the snow is not completely gone from the garden.  Here inside the square on the north side of the stone wall some snow remains.  Where it is located, it receives no direst sunlight since it is always in the shadow of the stone wall.  That doesn't keep the foxglove from looking all ready to do its thing in the spring. These low rosettes will send up flower spikes in the spring that will look terrific in front of the stone wall.  A few brand new lady's mantle leaves can also be seen.  Getting a glimpse of plants getting all ready for spring makes it seem closer somehow, but that is a pleasant illusion. It's January for Pete's sake!