Stone Wall Garden 2010, A Beginning

Although the day was overcast, it was simply impossible not to venture out into the garden. Many places are still covered in snow, but the garden is beginning to emerge from it's covering of white. With geese flying North overhead and the sound of birds all around, we walked the garden paths checking up on the garden. Ed put cages over emerging bulbs hoping to foil the rabbits and deer.He refilled a hole in the shade garden bed dug by some critter. We suspect a skunk. He put a cage over the area, and we can only hope that some of the dog tooth violets are still there. Time will tell about that. The bluebird boxes needed some mending so Ed took care of that. One box is missing. Perhaps it will be found somewhere under a patch of snow.

I must admit I spent most of my time just looking around. Most of the beds are wet and the ground is still frozen. I did cut off some dead plant stalks, and pulled a couple of weeds in the bed directly in front of the house.The ground there has thawed. One was a mullein and the other garlic mustard.It's too bad we don't care for garlic mustard. It grows very well here. It's a very small start , but the weeding has begun. I picked stones out of the grass and put them back in the path where they belong.Every winter some stones are displaced by snow shoveling.



Ed stayed out longer than I did. He spent some time working with his compost. He takes his piles of "black gold" very seriously. The gardening season for 2010 has officially begun. Ed is sifting compost. He's back in the garden and couldn't be happier!

Just a Hint of Spring

Our three day February thaw turned out to be nearly perfect. Some of the winter's snow is on its way down the river to the Chesapeake Bay, but dire predictions of rain, flooding , ice jams and high winds turned out to be overblown. The garden is not really uncovered except in a few places where the snow was thin. On some south facing slopes there are places where the deer can find grass to eat .

The driveway is beautifully clear of ice. There are still a few little slick spots, but what a difference since Monday. This morning a thin layer of "sap snow" covers everything. A picture of a local farmer and his grandson hanging sap buckets is featured above the fold in the local paper. We should be entering that period of warmer days, and below freezing nights that are perfect for the local maple syrup producers. More snowstorms will come , no doubt. Sometimes March has some interesting surprises here. As far as the weather is concerned, I could not have wished for a better week!