Its been a while since I posted, but Keith did a post last week. Between us we are trying to have a new post up at least every week. Just a warning that this is a long post because I have a lot of photos to share. The spring ephemerals will be keeping me busy in the next few weeks so I wanted to get these images posted.
Spring is finally here! Last Friday it was a perfect spring day with no rain so we decided to burn the huge pile of logs left over from the storage cabin. I would have liked to reuse some of these logs but Keith decided they were too rotten and full of nails.
We played tag team so one of us was monitoring the fire all the time and we had the hose nearby. It took eight hours to to go through this pile and my inner pyro was a happy camper. Anyone else love a fire? By the end of the day we had our lawn chairs out and the beer tasted good. Just like my old camping days.
We hosed it down really well before dinner but when we checked it a few hours later it was happily burning away in the dark. We came down with our flashlights and lugged the hoses out again and doused it even more. There were lots of curious sets of eyes in the field watching us.
Trees and shrubs are starting to leaf out. Seems like a miracle every year and it is so nice to see green again. This is a crab apple that I brought from the other house. I am glad it is happy in the corner of the veggie garden.
We have moved several flats of seedlings into the greenhouse and I have prepped the soil side for tomatoes and cucumbers. Keith gave the greenhouse a good washing after this photo was taken (part of the tag team trade off). You can see the automatic window vent is working well. I think it was about 75 degrees in there that day.
So far we only have one shelf setup but as we go through the seasons we will figure out how to best use all the space. I plugged in some patio lights and thought to attached them to the shelving for some bottom heat. It works pretty good and the seedlings are popping up!
A couple of weeks ago this rhubarb was covered in snow. Now it is growing gangbusters and we should be eating rhubarb compote soon.
These snowdrops were gorgeous last week. I am going to divide them after the they go to seed and move them around the yard.
So far these are the only crocuses that are coming up in the garden. One of my earliest memories is inspecting a clump of crocuses under a tree at my elementary school – I can vividly recall how bright they were shining in the spring sun. This fall I am going to add tons of yellow crocuses around the fruit trees and the new beds.
This is Hellebore Nigrus from the Night Jewel Series. I appreciate how many different varieties are planted around this yard because I know how much these cost. I did bring quite a few hellebores with me so they are all growing together.
These beautiful violas are planted beside the arbour by the patio.
There are hundreds of primroses planted in the beds near the house. Here are some pink ones and a group of coral and white ones. The bed by the front door is ringed with blue ones.
I started clearing off all the beds and cuttings down all the winter stalks last weekend so now everything is ready for the new season. These beds desperately need a load of garden soil and it will take at least 10 yards to cover all the beds plus the new bed I created out the front. We usually order Happy Soil from McNutt’s in Nanaimo. The tractor will make quick work of dumping the soil and then I can spread evenly.
See the peonies coming up? I brought these with us and I am happy to see that they survived being transplanted. This bed will look great when it has 6 inches of soil in it.
Also in this bed is the tree peony that was given to me last fall. I have never had one of these before so it is exciting to see it come alive. Someone told me that you can tell what colour the flowers will be from the stems, so I think this one might be white. We will see!
As I was shooting photos on the patio, this baby woodpecker arrived to feed at the suet feeder and didn’t seem to care that I was so close. I even walked around to get this shot and it stayed put. Must have been hungry.
I looked out the office window last week and saw this happy couple feeding on the bird seed. They seem pretty comfortable around the yard and are making a nest on the island down in the field pond. There is also a large heron that is stalking all the frogs down there.
Nothing says spring has arrived more than falling asleep to the deafening sound of frogs singing in the night. What’s your favourite memory about spring coming?