View from the deck on a glorious morning in early June.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

And so it begins, 2011

A new season, time for the ugly "before" pictures. The snow is almost gone but not quite.
Most of these pictures were taken April 7. I am finishing this on April 16, but it has been so cold that not much has changed. Overall I feel fairly satisfied with how the place emerged from the snow. Not perfect of course, but tidier than it has been in other years. The danger now is that the slow start of the season is lulling me into slowing down when I should be out there working like mad. As I type this it is SNOWING again. The weatherperson uttered the dreaded word "trough". Once you have a trough of cold air over B.C. it can take months to warm up.


April has always been an unpredictable month, and a brief snowfall that doesn't stay long is not abnormal even in early May. But those cold spells used to be interspersed with warm periods. This year it is just staying cold, with hardly a day over 10 even when it is half decent. I have decided a greenhouse is a mental health necessity.



Of course we have had plants started under grow lights.
 While I am desperate for some warmth and blue sky my gut is telling me we are in for a cold, wet summer. I hope I am wrong, and in the meantime the woods are happy.
The first spring flowers, in the sheltered bed right below the living room.
The once and future big sunny border. That enormous daylilly on the corner really needs to be dug up, divided and replanted..
How many years have I promised to do it next year?
The Doronicum has multiplied wonderfully. I will be able to transplant some and create some babies for sale. I love the daisy-like yellow flowers. They bloom for a long time, and for some strange reason the enemy has been disdaining them.

Speaking of the enemy....daffodils are supposed to be hassle-free, or at least deer resistant. Someone apparently needed to take a few nibbles first, and pull one all the way up, before deciding that the book was right. SIGH. I was counting on those. They didn't eat them down to nothing like they do tulips, but the tentative bites went through the flower bud.
The sumac that anchors the big sunny bed where it hits the driveway is one of my favorite plants.
 
I sure hope it survives the gnawing of its bark by either deer or rodents.
In the fenced veg garden it is still too cold and wet to do anything. 
To the new cat's great joy, the catnip has survived. My other cats rolled around in it, this one mainly eats it. She is also helping herself to voles, so let's hope the plague abates a bit.




 
.






1 comment:

  1. Looking very good_I can feel the planters itch_soon it will warm & you'll be able to get out there & get growing :D What type of wire did you use for surrounding your garden? We are thinking of putting up some fencing as we get our new gardens in to keep out all the deer etc... I see lots of wire fence at Lowes but not sure which one to get? Happy Gardening!

    ReplyDelete

Welcome guest! Commenting is free, not moderated, and I got rid of the captcha. If you were here, give me a wave.