A Promise Of Spring

Perhaps we are experiencing a genuine January thaw since the driveway has softened.  If snow precedes cold weather's return we will be plowing gravel.  Finding flower buds is a much more pleasant experience than worrying about snow removal.  Pinxter is a native plant that forms its flower buds prior to the onset of winter.  This picture also includes spent brown colored seed hulls from last year.  Just what advantage is realized by carrying flower buds exposed to the entire winter remains completely unknown here.  It is simply one of the marvels of plants.

This picture of the same bush was taken last June.  Look carefully and you will find the same stones in both pictures.  Both the sight and remembered scent of these flowers is something worth waiting for.  If these buds can survive winter so can we.

Despite the century old belief that Arbutus cannot be successfully transplanted, this recently moved plant is thriving.  Its white flower buds at this time of year serve an easily understood purpose.  Early appearing flowers need a head start.  Their perfume defies description and is well worth waiting for.  Chewed leaves show that evergreen leaves serve as a food source when little green remains.

Yesterday remaining snow cover kept these Snow Drop's early growth hidden.  Moved here last season, they were expected to survive the move.  They are not native to North America but their early white flowers will be welcome here.  Those red Sumac seed berries paint quite a picture.  We will be weeding out buckets of new trees.

Daffodils are not native here either but no garden would be complete without them.  A friend buys a big bag of these bulbs each year and plants them in her woods.  She now has a huge display of bright flowers on land that really serves no other gardening purpose.  As these photos show, Spring is definitely coming here reasonably soon.

First Day Truly Outside

This winter has not been thought of kindly in very many circles.  It just will not quit and make room for some warmer days.  Last night the temperature fell below freezing again and this ground remains hard despite clear skies and warm sunshine now.  Careful persistence did allow for some progress in creating a path for the water that is certain to come that does not include removing some of the driveway.

The pictured combination of a supporting pole and bent knees would make it appear that I read and understood points made in the stretching book that daughter Amy presented to me this weekend.  Actually this is the only way that I can reach the ground.  The ditch always fills with plowed snow and ice since no plow can clear the depression.  Recently, a maddock was used to pry away thick ice where some melt water had opened a channel under it.  Today's goal was to deepen the channel in an attempt to contain the runoff that is certain to come.  Two wheelbarrow loads of sod were removed and wheeled downhill.  An old guy must work smart.

These Snowdrops have been watched daily longing to see an open flower.  Transplanted just last Fall, the spectacular display will be seen next year.  That they are alive and trying is all that was hoped for.
Nonnative, they were knowingly placed in our wild plant garden since we need an early flower.

What is it ? is the obvious question here.  The red fuzzy spheres are sumac seed berries that the robins eat.  Near the top of the photo are two globs that feature fuzzy tops and three stem pieces form last year's leaves.  Round Lobed Hepatica is the name of this native wildflower that was transplanted here one year ago.  It has survived and has begun to grow with early Spring flowers promised.  It appears that we actually have two plants here and if that is the case they will be separated this Fall.  Soon we will see pale purple colored flowers appearing ahead of the new leaves.  Yes, these fuzzy lumps have us excited.

Royal Catchfly has proven difficult for us to grow.  A small fortune has been spent buying new plants year after year but it appears that one of last year's plants intends to grow here for another year.  The bright red flowers still seen on the plant tag should make the appeal of this plant obvious.  Cleaning up spent Siberian Iris leaves will happen when both the ground and the plants are no longer frozen.  At that time the desired plant will be gently pushed just a little deeper into the soil.

Daffodils are well under way here.  For some reason our attempts to give these plants growing room usually sets them back for two or three years but these really need to be divided.  That task will properly wait until Fall while the huge Siberian Iris in the foreground is scheduled for removal and division soon.  We have no idea just where all of these reasonably sized plants will go but space must be found.  We have not got what it takes to trash plants that will grow beautiful flowers.  That iris is huge and we are not certain that we can remove it in one piece.  Breaking off pieces is the more likely method.  Soon we will have more to do than we can possibly get done.  We have dealt with that reality many times in the recent past.

Winter Storm Watch

I was not sure what to expect when I awoke this morning.  There was talk of snowing, blowing and frigid temperatures.  Ed and I had decided that this would be a great day to stay cozy  in the warm house.  We did get snow overnight.  This morning when we woke up at about 7:30 the garden looked beautiful.  I love the way it looks when it has a new blanket of snow.  April snow is common here.  It just happens that this year snow has been uncommon here.  I missed it.
 

Snow was perched on top of the wires of  the cage that had been placed over my Siberian squill.  The daffodils that were open had a similar topping.  It was calm and quiet but not for long.  I watched as it began to snow again and the wind picked up.  Swirls of snow danced along the ridge.  Wind whistled around the house drifting snow in some places and leaving others bare.
  

By lunch time the  ridge disappeared in a cloud of white.  Sometimes the snow was falling straight down at an incredible rate.  Other times it seemed to fly past the window parallel to the ground never landing on the garden at all.

One thing about winds like that, they move the clouds right along.  Dark storm clouds were replaced by fluffy white clouds and patches of blue sky.  The April sun is strong and despite the cold, the snow began to melt.  On the south side of the house the roof dripped like crazy.  On the North side the dripping was slow enough for icicles to form.

Now the cage has no more snow and the Siberian squill are uncovered again. The bed on the south side of the house is nearly naked.  Most of the stone garden paths are free of snow.  If you look closely the yellow of daffodils can be seen inside the square.  For some of the garden the snow is here today and gone today.  Now the warm April sun is dropping behind the hill.  The temperature will drop too.  When I first came to live here in upstate New York I was told, " If you don't like the weather, wait it will change."  Today it was fun to watch!

Here You Could Smell The Earth Day

Today was one of those days when you could smell the spring rain.  I guess not everyone knows what I mean when I say that, but  if you do then you know exactly how delicious an aroma it is.  This picture of my pink trout lilies was taken yesterday.  The whole garden was just waiting for this nice gentle Spring rain.

What a difference in less than 24 hours.  Spring ephemerals really grow at an amazing rate.  Rain  worked like magic.  Grass that looked brown yesterday was bright green this morning. Early this morning I watched the tree swallows  swooping around the garden doing their best to break up a  ruffled grouse tryst that was going on in the bushes just beyond the garden.   I hope the happy couple found a more private spot to continue.

Behold my first two daffodil flowers.  I thought they were going to have short stems, but the rain is doing wonders.   With such color and scent, wet as they are, they are perfect for Earth Day!

An Exciting Spring Walk In The Garden

Oh Yippee, I finally got to walk around in the garden today.  Yesterday was special because I saw my first bluebird and that always makes me ecstatic, but today it was actually warm enough to walk around in the garden a bit.  I know my old photography teacher would say this is a picture of dirt.  You're darn right it is! I had to look for awhile to find a nice bare patch of garden dirt that wasn't under water or snow.  This one had the bonus of Siberian squill breaking through the surface.  It won't be long until magnificent blue flowers will appear.

Most of the garden looks  more like this.  The great majority of our plants are still covered in white icy snow  and water.  This dianthus looks pretty terrific to me even surrounded in icy white.

The very tips of the first of my daffodils can be seen here.  I was hoping to see my snow drops or lovely little Dutch iris that are in this bed making an appearance, but they are still under the snow.

Ed's lettuce that he planted in the basement is coming up. Just the idea of having my own lettuce makes me salivate in expectation.  I'm glad we can buy lettuce in the store through the winter, but the price is steep and the quality poor when compared to fresh lettuce from the garden.  Ed's lettuce came up in just 3 days!  Not every pot has the four plants he hoped for, but it is still early.

Just feast your eyes on these four gorgeous, if tiny, lettuce plants.  Three days ago they were a tiny seed. Imagine the changes a week will bring.  There's a lot of dirt in this post, but there's a lot of  great promise for the future too!

First Garden Weeding

Snow still covers the ground in the shadow of the high meadow but this gently southward sloping garden bed has thawed and is ready for weeding.  Daffodils have claimed most of the planting with snow drops and Dutch iris along the edge.  This planting receives diligent care.  A fall weeding was followed by a top dressing of compost.  New weeds appear under the snow.  They need to be removed now while the flower growth is small.  A foot long piece of quack grass root was pulled from under a group of snow drops.  Quack grass persists here and it is difficult to remove.  Any broken piece of root develops into a new plant.  Still, I hope that none remains in this small area.

We have no luck with plants that finally find ground late in the season.  This English thyme spent much of the summer in a pot on the wall.  It was finally planted but its roots had no time to reach beyond the pot.  Which of our many frosts pushed it out of the ground matters not.  Today it was pushed back into the soil but its survival is unlikely.  If we hold to our promise of ordering fewer new plants, we might be able to plant all in a timely fashion.

Another shortcoming involves our collective inability to discard perfectly good plants.  Many catnip plants were found growing in what had been the carrot patch.  Despite the careful preparation that preceded last year's sowing of the carrots, sizable catnips were interspersed with the carrots.  Clearing out the mess yielded several small plants.  We have little luck transplanting catnip and all of these should have been dumped into the compost pile.  Five were tucked into the freshly weeded ground.  If they live, we will have to find a home for them.
 

The tray of lettuce plants spent some of today outside.  We believe that exposure to a light breeze builds stronger plant stems.  As we move closer to our last frost date, these walls will become covered with plants in pots.  The four pots in the picture contain plants that never found a spot in the garden last year.  The garden bench needs new wood and the day lilies need attention.  Last year by this date, the daffodils were in bloom.  It appears that this year's season in the garden may finally have begun.

Wet Flowers

Finally the rain let up enough to get a few pictures. Obviously the plants are responding to the rain. Water droplets sit like jewels on the Dutchman's breeches.

My trout plant, with it's pink and blue flowers has never looked this good!

This patch of daffodils is wet but gorgeous.

The bright yellow of the "King Alfred's " is always welcome wet or dry.

My primrose has a single open flower. There is enough water in the blossom that a pollinator would have to submerge to get at it. Looks like there are lots more of these cheery little flowers to come. Tonight we expect the garden will get wetter still.

A Glorious Garden Day

After a clear night with starry skies, this morning's freeze was even harder than yesterday's frost. That didn't make much difference to my first "Rebecca Viola " blossom. She's lovely, and she's tough. Ed is already outside in the garden. He's pretty darn hardy too. I'm a little more of a tender perennial myself. I'll go out when it warms up just a bit more.




The daffodils than have not already gone past are in their glory. They are built for April weather too. They might droop a little in the cold, but the sun brings them right back to magnificent. Perhaps we can learn a lot from daffodils!Times wasting. I'm heading out for some fun in the sun with Ed in the garden.

Sure Signs of Spring

The snow is melting in front of the house. The combination of the strong sunlight of a Southern exposure, and reflection off the white house has almost completely cleared the bed of snow. Sure enough the tips of daffodils are poking up through the dirt.



Beautiful little rose campion plants are there just waiting to be moved to a spot where they have room for their beautiful silver foliage and magenta flowers. It's too soon to move them , but is sure nice to see them.



Our seeds are already here. Ed is getting ready to start plants inside under lights. But today my first plant arrived. It's a gorgeous sunny day,but it was pretty chilly when I left the house this morning. This afternoon it was much warmer when I returned. It's a good thing too because on the porch was a Logee's box waiting for me. It was kind of a tall box for such a cute little plant, but the plant was well packed, and it looks great.I'm so glad it's here so I don't have to worry about it getting chilled. Ed is putting it in a larger pot, and it will join the indoor plants. It will be a while before I pick leaves to cook with, but I have high hopes for my new baby.

This morning I got a glimpse of two coyotes walking together along the ridge. The critters are pairing up. Maybe spring isn't here just yet, but it's coming. I can feel it!

Restless Winter

If you think as I do of the winter as being a time for a garden to rest in preparation for the exuberance of spring, then you know my garden is having a restless night. First it was nicely tucked in under a blanket of snow, then the covers were thrown off in a hot flash. Next came chills and finally the blanket was back. I have lost track of how many times that has happened this year. I'm afraid my perennials will wake with the equivalent of bags under their eyes.

The daffodils are sticking the tips of there leaves above the level of the dirt. Since the picture, the blanket is back, the snooze button has been set. Another week or two under the covers would be perfect. Without that beauty sleep those leaf tips will brown. Of course the flowers will be so glorious, who will notice?