Getting There

Slowly but surely, we're getting things accomplished.

With the long weekend, and two whole days with nice temps and no rain, I finally was able to get most of the WS seedlings in. Since I'm being so very meticulous with placement and care, it is taking forever. With such a weird spring, I lost a lot of the seeds to rot, so I'm trying to fill all that space with what I have left.

Most of the no-shows were for the semi-shade area of the flowerbed, so I'll have to resort to placing some of the sun lovers there after all. It can't be helped.

WS lesson learned this year = try to save some bucks for the good potting soil, or go plain pete. Some of the jugs ended up as bricks with no germination at all. Not surprising! Of course, when it finally comes time to do it again, I know it's going to be the cheap stuff, or not do it again at all :(

Both the pink and deep purple butterfly bushes made it through the winter (yes!) so I guess it pays to really mulch those well. The iris are budding nicely, can't wait for them to finally open.

The dollar shop allysum seed I planted last year turned into the most amazing, gorgeous blast of color by the ponds. They are so huge and lush they look fake.

Junk hunting turned into a success. Hubs got a nice deep wheelbarrow (you would have died laughing watching us finagle that huge thing into the trunk of the tiny neon), which was missing its wheel, but no biggie. I got a beautiful column pedestal for the center of the bog to put a pot on for some added color. Ok, so there's a small hole in the bottom on one side - that just gets to be put in the back where nobody walks anyway! And I got tons of six packs for seed starting indoors next spring. Woohoo!

Most of the garden is planted, though there's still a bit to clear out to get more of the veg seeds in that Kim sent me.

I can't believe how well every single one of the veg I grew from seed are doing! We've always had pretty good success with them, but this year is almost unreal. I so wish I had a camera. Ok, maybe not - I haven't had time to weed out just yet. There is so much satisfaction when I look at those strong healthy plants and know that WE did that. From tiny, sometimes almost invisible seeds, came these huge healthy plants that will fill the freezer soon. Even the onions are almost knee high!

The bee balm is kind of taking over one area by the pond, but I don't mind, I like it. Besides, it seems to be the hummingbird favorite every year.

The Lizard Tail in the bog (that I got for a buck last year because Lowe's left it out in the late freeze) is going gangbusters, along with the purple water iris we pulled from a ditch.

Now, if the flowers grow to be as happy and healthy, we're going to have one hell of a gorgeous yard!

It's good to be a gardener!

So exciting!

My red-headed woodpeckers are back! Yay! They are the most beautiful birds ever. I just found out they're on the threatened species list, which makes seeing them even more exciting.

The humming birds are back and flocking to the feeders like crazy. Their little territorial dance is cute, but annoying at the same time. Didn't their mammas ever teach them to share? It's not like there aren't enough feeders all over the lawn.

Spring is most definitely here. (I'm avoiding the fact we may have a few snowflakes in the air tonight, so, shhh!)

Everything is so green! Have you ever noticed how everything looks so much of a brighter shade of green in the spring? I swear, it is! Ok, so maybe it's just me and it's the same shade all summer long. :-)

There needs to be a seperate measure of time for gardeners. I need something like 80,000 daylight hours in a week. Yeah, that'd get me close to getting everything done. Not! I was actually really ticked off the other day to have to drop everything and do the laundry. Apparently people become disgruntled when they run out of clean undies. Grrr...I think domestic duties should be banned from May 1st until October 1st.

I can't stop smiling over the woodpeckers. If you ever spot one, you'll understand what I mean!

Priorities

The vegetable planting is overtaking any kind of flower bed preperations.

D decided we needed the garden situated in a completely different place this year (actually more longated in another direction). Moving almost a whole garden bed is a lot of work.

It's turned into a 'plant as soil is prepared' marathon. I totally don't recommend this and I know it isn't quite the correct or proper way to do things, but I never really adhered to any of the garden rules. I'm such an obstinant gardener! It would be so much easier to do raised beds, but that's nowhere near being in the budget.

So far we've gotten everything in the cole crops in except for the brussel sprouts. Poor things! At least they're patiently hanging on until we can make a little more progress.

I finally had a tulip show its pretty face today. Yay!

My WSed jugs aren't really doing anything this year. I think most of the seeds rotted with the really crappy spring we had, but thanks to Don, (thanks again you wonderfully generous man!) I got to resow a lot of the seeds I think I lost. He sent me a lot of his leftover seeds and it was one heck of a welcome sight to see that envelope in the mail! I wonder if the neighbors think I'm nuts when I do the happy dance...

Thank God I was smart enough to leave back 2 or 3 of some of the seeds Kim and Sissy sent, but I certainly won't have what I would have of them.

I'm dying to start those yummy warm weather veg seeds Kim sent, but I'll be a patient gardener and hold back for the crappy weather that's sure to show up at a most inopportune time. Isn't that always the way in CNY? Low temp last night was 31, so, uh, yeah...I'm waiting.

A friend down the road is ripping down their log cabin and said we could take the logs if we wanted. Moving them is going to be nigh-on impossible, but I'm estatic! We're going to use them to see if we can build some flowerbeds around the base of the house and stop the wind from wipping in so bad in the winter. I can't imagine a cozy house during a blizzard and no snowdrifts under the wall edges! Another friend of D's gave us some oddball sheets of foam insulation to put against the wall first, and then we'll protect the insulation and walls with plastic before we fill. Now I just have to figure out where and how to get some dirt.

It's another massive project to monopolize our summer, but what's new. A warm house? Lovely new flower beds? Imagine! I can definitely handle that.
:)

Let The Weatherperson Water Your Lawn

Seriously!

I can't trust my weatherman to get tomorrows forecast right (and they said no rain today...would they like to look at the drops falling out my window?) much less trust him to water my lawn! But Rainbird is heading toward exactly that technology.

Lawns watered when and exactly how much they need at any time depending on the current weather and forecast for each area.

Hmmm...how much do you trust your weatherperson to say if your lawn will need watering this week?

Getting Jittery

Well, shoot!
Every other zone 5-er seems so far ahead of us this year. Heck, I'm still WSing! Thank goodness, because I think every container rotted in this awful weather.

We seem to be stuck in some localized long-gimme-a-break-drawn-out-forever-it's-never-going-away winter. There's still snow on the ground :(

The peonies are barely jutting from the ground and finally (yes!) saw some daffodil blooms. The tulips are pretty much still sitting in limbo...they know it ain't quite over yet. Smart boogers!

Sunday, we got peas, broccoli, onion and cabbage planted - wet soil be darned.
The poor koi are still sitting in 40 degree water :( Grrr. And we expect another freeze tonight.

My clematis' have itty-bitty green leaf tips showing. I hope they'll be ok. Hostas are still nowhere to be seen. Poppies got up about 3 inches and stalled - maybe they know something.

But, of course, that freaking chocolate mint and its bishop weed buddies have sure made an appearance! How stupid was I?!

Here's hoping next weekend will bring us some better weather, because the forecast until at least that far ahead looks like total crap.