Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Meet the new year, same as the old year.

 Three days in and that's how it feels.  How is it that on December 31st one is so filled with optimism and hope, and just days later the realization hits that nothing has changed and all hope is lost.  OK, maybe not lost.  Derailed?  At least we were treated to a stunning sunrise to end the year.


To lift the grey veil of winter depression, I wandered out to my little hillside garden (that's what I'm going to call the newly fenced vegetable/perennial holding bed area) to see what was happening.  To my surprise, I found my hellebore proudly showing off a few swollen flower buds.


There were traces of green in many of the beds; English daisy, veronica, yarrow, foxglove...all had decided to respond to the abundant daylight and warm temperatures.  Things look to be headed back to more seasonable temperatures, so I hope these plants aren't too bothered by that.  I can thank my mother for drilling into my head that hardy perennials are your best bet, and be sure they're appropriate for your USDA plant hardiness zone.  Despite being upgraded to Zone 5 (thanks, climate change) she'll still insist we're Zone 4 and any plant you have that isn't hardy for that zone, well, you're taking a chance.

After packing away the Christmas decorations and folding up the fake tree, I decided to bring up the seed starting shelves.  I couldn't bear to have them sit there empty, so I sowed a small tray of Gerber Daisies, Blue Mist Spirea, Rudbeckia, and Prairie Coneflower.  All of these were seeds I had collected, so I just want to know if they'll germinate.  I won't start anything else.  I need to keep repeating that to myself, otherwise I'll have six foot tall tomato plants on my dining room table come April.  😏


I've also started a new hobby, needle felting.  So far I've stabbed every one of my fingers and have some questionable looking Easter eggs to show for my efforts.  We won't talk about the Easter bunny that looks like a heavily pregnant monkey-chicken hybrid. I'll get better at it, once my fingers heal.

No comments:

Post a Comment