Spring has sprung…
“It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want – oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!” – Mark Twain.
I love that quote and it really speaks to the way I feel when spring kicks off. One of the first signs of spring is our Forsythia blooming.
Our poor little Forsythia isn’t as flamboyantly flaunting its bright yellow flowers as a neighbor who is out at the turn into the driveway. But then the neighbor’s bush is in full sun and ours is in partial shade. Still it does brighten up the yard a bit.
Our Hydrangeas by the front steps are starting to sprout leaves. I’ll need to give them some food soon and hope they’ll last another year in those pots.
The weather turned warm over the weekend so since I was feeling a bit better we went out and did a half-hour of work on Saturday and an hour on Sunday. That may not seem like a lot to those of you without fibromyalgia but for me that weekend work meant a lot of asprin, hot showers, and lots and lots of liniment, and some tender care of serious muscle aches — dare I admit that there was an inordinate amount of whimpering and whining too as Hyperion can attest.
But the corner of our yard that I remembered to take a picture of for before and after went from this leaf covered mess:
To this after shot which I admit looks like a dirt yard with some leaf cover where we didn’t get to yet. The upper hill near the house has a lot of hostas planted there and they’ll be up in a few weeks/days (hope springing eternal). We seeded grass over the rest of the lower yard last year and there are some tuffs of grass flattened by the leaves. We plan to sow more grass seed (for shady lawns) this coming weekend after we get the rest of the leaves up and dragged into the woodsy mulch pile (sometimes having five wooded acres is very nice).
We started clearing the leaves out of the herb garden too. The rosemary (lower left) and lavendar (upper left) made it through the winter. The upper right area is where the strawberry plants are we’ve got about a dozen in there and bought another dozen everybearing type to put in this weekend.
Checking out the garden area, it looks like the lemon balm, sage, and a few others managed to survive the winter cold. As well as this one in an above ground pot — until I find the label I’m not sure what it is though. I’m just a beginning gardener and I’ve so much to learn.
The blue buckets you see in the herb garden top-most right side are where we planted the tomatoes and other vegetables last year. The year before we bought plants from local garden centers (Lowes and Home Depot) and got them all in and the next day found neat holes in the ground and no plants. We bought more plants and planted them in the buckets (because the only plants left were the two in buckets) and those are were we got vegetables from last year. For some unknown but, I’m sure, arcane reason the critters that enjoyed our first round of plants wouldn’t/didn’t touch the plants in the buckets.
It started raining Sunday night and all day Monday. Today things are still damp and the temperature is dropping over the next several days. I’m hoping to get some seeds started this week sometime. If I can get seedlings started myself it should drop the cost of the garden somewhat. Considering that we’re on wooded arcres and have very little space that gets sunshine and that we’re in a constant battle with the critters that share this area (racoons, squirrels, deer, moles, voles, and so on)…it’s a wonder we got anything last year. The bucket trick worked so I’ll do it again this year and hope for more produce by trying to keep a better eye on things to get them before the animals do.
But still my spirit is soaring with the hope that spring always bring that this year I’ll feel strong enough and pain-free enough to actually get some goodly amount of work done in the yard. If we don’t get to some of the wooded area to clear out the Kudzu we’ll be fighting a loosing battle with that vine from now on.
The previous owners planted a line of irises and tulips and other bulbs in the woods by the orchard. Here’s what I see from our back yard and from my kitchen window. Yes, it is spring.
