An almost-normal spring

After several cold wet springs we are enjoying an almost-normal season. We started out cold and wet, but with some warm days in between. The rivers are full or overflowing, with a good snow pack left on the mountains: water money in the bank. Green-up has been normal.

Last year we were bare till mid May, and then it was BANG, full greenery.

This year we had a chance to enjoy weeks of that tender green that you expect to see glow in the dark. It has been quite wonderful. The leaves are fully out now, but still that luminous green. The cherry trees on the way to town have been blooming for a few days. The skunk cabbages are almost finished. The dandelions just started flowering. All right on schedule for around here. 

Except for one thing: where are all the singers? Where are the spring peepers and the dawn and evening choruses of birds? It is not a silent spring yet, but it sure is quieter than it used to be. 

Accomplishments are lagging behind, as usual. My energy still fluctuates. If I felt every day like I did Monday I could move mountains. Alas, I don't.


Once again too much garden time is spent in the greenhouse at the sink, planting things in containers or potting up. I was already wondering if the market plant endeavor was worth it. Yesterday I found out that the official nursery center in town has significantly  lowered their prices for perennials.
The center was not there when I started. That does it. I will no longer be a rain-or-shine vendor. On nice days I do well with reflexology, but on cool rainy days I need a table full of plants. If I have to lower all my prices it is just not worth it.

Look at it this way: time spent preparing a plant for sale may or may not give me some dollars with uncertain value. Time spent growing a potato will yield a potato. Unless voles eat it. I guess there is no total safety this side of the grave.


In the top garden the established raspberries have finally been pruned and tied up. This is one chore I really like to have done in the fall.
I have made a start at clearing the rogue raspberry jungle,
and continue to chip away at the old red currant tangle. The dead branches are now piled inside the fence and will hopefully become a hugel bed one day.


The disadvantage of beds with wooden supports is that some of them fall apart during winter, and then you have to spend time fixing them just when you are busiest. I need the Infrastructure Fairy. 


To give him his due Old Dutch will do things if asked. But it is really not his thing, and I hate asking. I would beg for assistance anyway if it did not hurt his 75-year old back. I hate pain and refuse to inflict it. He does mow the lawn, a chore I hate, and has appointed himself official master of the raspberry harvest, which takes a load off.

There is nothing planted outside yet, but there is edible greenery in the greenhouse and stuff getting a head start in containers, like these Jade Cross Brussels Sprouts.   Time to go out there and stick some more seeds into pots. We'll have an instant garden in a few weeks. Love that greenhouse!