A Slow Start But A Wonderful Beginning

This morning  the temperature started out in the twenties, but it's April now, and with the sun shining by this afternoon it was glorious outside.  Enough snow had melted for Ed to put his new lettuce plants out on the wall for a little fresh air and sunshine.  He took his tools and headed down to work on the muddy driveway.

I got the camera and went to take a walk exploring today's  newly uncovered patches.  My spirits really got a lift when I spotted a wooley bear caterpillar. I've seen one or two very frozen looking ones before this spring, but this caterpillar was alive and moving.  I gently picked him up and he curled up into a ball in my hand.  It might have been awake for a very short time.  Perhaps I should have let him be, but I couldn't resist.  After all these years, I'm still just a big kid. The other great thing in this picture is the green grass.  Once uncovered and  heated by the sun the brown thatch is giving way to new growth.  At last there is something green for the deer to eat besides my garden plants.

As I walked by the stone patio, I picked up this uprooted, dried out and dead thyme plant.  Apparently the deer don't eat the roots, they spit them out and leave them for me.  Once I had future compost in my hand it was inevitable that I headed to the basement to get my  trug and garden cart.  The rattle of its wheels was music to my ears and I only had to cross a short patch of snow to get to where I could work on the bed in front of the house.  Mostly I cut back dead seed heads and stalks of  New England asters, Black-eyed Susans and Brown-eyed Susans, Rudebeckia triloba. I picked up a lot of black locust seed pods. They are everywhere this year.  It's too soon to do much in  the garden beds when it is still so wet.  I kept my cart on the stones and worked only where I could easily reach.

I wasn't going to pull weeds. It is really too soon.   I don't like it when they break off leaving the root behind, but a pernicious  garlic mustard was too much for me and I gave it a good yank!

What could give a gardener more satisfaction than pulling a hated weed and getting all of that incredibly long tap root?  Oh my, that felt good!  I didn't stay out too long.  One container of weeds to compost was a great beginning.  Like Ed's lettuce I had my time in the garden to enjoy the sunshine and the fresh air.  We don't want any sunburn and I have hope for tomorrow without sore muscles!

One Step Backwards

Yesterday weather conditions drew us out of doors and this garden area was cleaned up.  Overnight new snow fell and now the sky is filled with low threatening clouds.  Winds are from the south.  NOAA predicts that this new snow will be gone today.  We shall see.
 

Wild turkey tracks are everywhere.  Initially, I saw these footprints as the steps for the turkey trot.  Later we saw the bird feeding on clear ground at the base of the shade garden wall.  Our first concern focused on the fact that the bird was alone.  We usually see wild turkeys in large groups.  What happened to the rest of the group is an obvious question.  An opportunity to watch this bird for a long time as it fed revealed just how thin it is.  When it moved it seemed to stagger.  My displeasure with this winter seem really weak when compared with its impact on the wild life.

These prints were made before the storm ended.  Fresh snow partially fills the tracks making identification shaky.  Two large footprints side by side point to rabbit.  If its pace was slow, then the front feet could have found ground one after the other some distance apart.

We recently saw our first road kill of the season.  Skunk scent fills the air now so we know that they are out and about.  I find it terribly sad that an animal manages to survive a harsh winter only to be ended by a car during its first walk about.

These early lettuce plants were started with no plans that they would ever be planted out.  They should see some time outside on the wall when weather permits.  Some of these leaves are large enough to take now.  The primary reason for planting them early was that we had to see something green.  Oh my, they surely look good.

The covered tray on the heating pad contains tomato seeds freshly planted.  Here again we are early but there is a workable plan.  Twelve of these tomato plants will be reset in one gallon pots.  Days outside on the wall will be followed with nights in the basement.  If cold weather threatens, days will find them in the basement.  This early start is intended to get us ripe tomatoes ahead of the late blight.  Additionally, soil was found under my fingernails yesterday.  My potting soil smelled great in spite of spending a long winter in a plastic garbage can.