After all the waiting and anticipation, today was the quintessential spring day to work outside. Ed started early and headed for the back. When he returned from there, I got my cart and all my other gear and joined him in the garden. The crocuses are beginning to bloom and it's a pleasure to hear the buzzing of the bees. There might not be many flowers just yet, but this bee's sacs are brimming with orange pollen. We have lots of cleaning up to do, but the beds with blooming flowers beg for attention and they get it.
Right now my Kathryn Hodgkin Dutch iris are a delight. Some of them are open and there are more to come. These early flowers are always good for a smile. Cleaning up around something so lovely is fun. The tree swallows are back and provide a little aerial excitement as well.
Lest we forget the weeds, they seem to have wintered over well. Here is shepherd's purse already in flower. Quack grass is making an appearance as well. The dandelions are off to a slow start, but give you a great feeling if you can get the small plant and its gigantic root out in one piece. We spent the rest of the morning, removing mulch, pulling weeds, cutting back dead stems to make way for new growth. Ed potted up some Clara Curtis chrysanthemums that he wants to move. This kept up until lunch time. We were both starved and enjoyed the break for lunch. After lunch we left our tools in the garden, thinking we would return to do more and took the truck on a scenic tour around the place.
On our stop at the gravel bank, we found the colts foot in flower. The yellow flowers are one of the first wildflowers to appear. The flowers always come before the leaves that give the plant its name. It really is a ditch weed. These plants are growing on a section of gravel bank that was actively mined last season. The clump may have slid down to its present location. Its charm lies in its early blooms.
The buds on the red maple trees are still tightly closed. We will need more warm weather before they will open.
One of our stops was for me to watch Ed use his new cable and his truck to pull out an invasive rose. The cable has a ring at each end . Ed puts the cable around the stump and the smaller ring over the hitch ball on the truck. He still uses his pry bar to loosen the stump, but then the truck pulls it from the ground. We will see how many Japanese honeysuckles and nusiance roses will get this treatment. I'm betting a lot. Ed is delighted with every one that goes!
That's a pretty big rose bush. It fills the back of the truck. We took it to join the others on Ed's brush pile down at the gravel bank.
When we returned Ed went back to work on weeding a garden bed. I was out of gas, so I just went out to put away my tools. We are both tired but happy. Tomorrow looks like another nice day. I hope we are both up to it!
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