Finally.....

After a long, cold winter it's finally looking like spring. We've had two weekends in a row without snowfall! And today it got up to around 70!

Ahhhhhhh.

[OK, so that's a bit of a cheat. I bought the Pericallis above at a Big Box Store. What can I say? I'm feeling desperate for color.]

So yesterday was the Ceremony of the Moving the Snow Shovel into the Basement and the Putting the Parkas away till next winter. Today was the first day of the Spring Races.

I'm racing to cut back last year's dead vegetation before this  year's new green grows up and make the job that much harder.

I won with the chives.

But the catmint, Nepeta Walker's Low, might have gotten ahead of me. I have my "short" day tomorrow so I'll scootch out after giving lecture and rush home to try to finish the spring clean up.

And I will make a note that I need even more crocus for next year.

Did I mention I was desperate for flowers? So are the bees.

They were all over my crocus today.

Hmmm... At least the Dwarf Iris were able to grow through the dead perennial. Now how am I going to trim back the dead.... 

Pollinator Party Friday

It's peak summer and my garden is full of...

POLLINATORS

and Predators...

Today was....

Today was warm (near 60) and sunny [need to work on my Teva tan!]. 

Today was the first day of the year that I saw a bee [hooray for crocuses - what else would the poor bees have to eat this time of year?].

Today was the first time I got to use my new Felco Pruners [this is what happens when you take a day off work to stay home sick and have internet access and a credit card].

Today was the first day of the year for me to get my knees so muddy [but the veggie garden is completely weed free now!].

Today was a good day.




WANT MORE.

FINALLY!!!!

After a long, hard snowy winter and weeks of below normal temperatures the weather pattern finally changed and I was able to get out in the garden yesterday.

A ladies' hands proclaim her habits.  I have a habit of working in the garden without gloves.

One of my neighbors worries about my tendency to wear sandals or, worse, go about in bare feet!  Yesterday she told The Husband that he needs to buy me some socks.  I explained to him that "socks" is New England code for pansies.  Got a shopping trip scheduled for today.

The Husband is like Royalty in that he has many titles.  One of his titles is Major Spoilsport of Plant Buying.  Every time I talk about buying a plant he asks "where is that going to go?"  So I check the tag and mention that the conditions are just like those needed by the vaguely-Latin-sounding-name-that-I-just-made-up and there is a gap in the garden there.  If he's on the ball he persists in wanting to know where that vaguely-Latin-sounding-etc  plant is - he doesn't remember which one it is.  Spoilsport.  The point of this story is that I have ordered plants from Bluestone Perennial and he wants to know where they are going.  So here they are.

All of those plant labels are where the plants will go.  This was my big weekend project - remove the grass, add compost, be ready for their arrival.  That will put a pin in his Spoilsport bubble.

Just don't tell him about the OTHER plants I've ordered that aren't going here.    Shhhh!

Gratuitous photo of Crocus and First Bee of the Season!