April showers and all that

I love how quickly we go from snow and cold to green and somewhat warmer.  The spring days break the grumpy, cynical nature of the northmen and everyone is just in a good mood.  We've had some much needed rain, and a few days of unseasonably hot weather, both of which have begun to wake the gardens from their winter slumber.

In the pasture, the area that had burned is less of a horror show and more of a quickly fading scar.                

 

The cottage garden plants are forcing their way through the thick layer of soil I dumped on them last autumn.

                            

Yes, that is an outdoor sofa frame.  I'm using that and some wrought iron outdoor tables as plant supports in these gardens, because why not?  Thrifty Yankee.

In the hot beds at the barn, the yellow crocus I planted are in bloom.  I love them, and hope they spread like mad.

   

In the hillside garden, the garlic is chugging away, and the hellebore is in bloom.  She really needs to go into the forest garden.  I've decided that I probably won't be able to get to the entire forest garden this year, but I will try to get at least one small section done.  Hopefully a few of my shade plants will have a new home by the end of summer.

 

 The Katharine Hodgkin dwarf iris have bloomed.  This is a variety I have wanted for many years, and finally found online.  I also purchased some dwarf iris 'Louise', but I haven't seen it emerge yet.  I'm honestly not sure where I planted it.  Both of these will eventually be moved into the alpine garden when that's ready.

The white forsythia I planted a few years ago as bare root stock has about five flowers this year.  I can't wait until it's a fully grown, bushy shrub covered in these delicate white blooms.

In the back yard I've been working to get the cement block borders in place around the bank I mulched last year.  I can't believe how much grass has pushed through the cardboard and bark mulch already!  I'll have to mulch again this spring, after pulling the grass.

And finally, an update on my winter sowing experiment.  I have germination!  Not in every jug, but I'm happy with what's going on so far.  The teasel, flax, valerian, ammi majus, and most excitedly, the white penstemon seed gathered from my own plant have all germinated.  So far the verbena bonariensis and great burnet are not cooperating, but the pimpinella has about three tiny seedlings, so maybe these just need a little more time or some warmer weather.  I'm pretty stoked with the results.

Not-so-pro-tip - when you tape the containers together, don't use Gorilla tape.  That stuff just does not want to peel off!  I may have to cut some jugs open.

For the next week we're returning to more typical spring weather.  Rainy, raw, and temperatures overnight below freezing.   The winter sown seedlings will come into the garage for protection to be on the safe side.  I'd hate to lose them at this point.  I've started clearing the sumac behind the bitch barn so I can get the rest of the snow fence put up, and hopefully get the hillside garden secured.  The doe and her twins survived the winter and they've already been walking through the cottage and hillside gardens.  I'm not losing veg to these marauders this year if I can help it.

I have pasture edges to cut, rocks and soil to move to the alpine garden, mule fence to get done, cat fence to erect, a squash mound to prepare, and hundreds of seedlings to pot on until it's safe for them to go out.  Sometimes there's so much to do, it feels incredibly daunting.  I keep saying to myself "Just get this project done, and next year you'll have more time to enjoy yourself" but it seems the big projects just drag on and never get completed.  I sometimes find myself frustrated because I'm physically and financially hindered, but then I think about the alternative.  I could be living in an apartment, without the means to have my mules, my gardens, and all these things that keep me so busy.  I really am a lucky gal.

The more things change

 Talk about what's old being new again...I was going through some of my winter posts from years gone by, and noted how similar the December 2022 post regarding a rain storm was to a storm we just experienced this week.  Thankfully the 2025 warm up with rain and wind wasn't as destructive, but it sure did eat up all of our Christmas snow.  The fog created by the warm air made for some moody photos, too.

 I love how the pre vs post sunrise light changes in photos; the blue tinted snaps were taken about an hour before the more sepia hued ones. 

In the end, the warm air and heavy rain melted most of the snow and temperatures then dove into the lower 20sF, so everything froze solid.  The winter that we experienced Winter Storm Elliot ended up being extremely snowy after that storm, so maybe we'll return to a winter wonderland before it's over with.  I mean, it's only the first day of winter, so who knows what's in store? 

The Time In Which I Enter My Puttering Phase

It's hot again, but in the next few days temperatures will plummet and we're expecting our first frost.  I've now entered my Puttering Phase.  This is when it doesn't look like like much, but I'm getting a lot done.  

I've split and transplanted all of the tall asters, planting them throughout the meadow area to promote late season color next year.  In their place I've planted Russian sage along the patio's granite face, and perennial sweet pea vine at the base of each side of the arbor.

 

I've also finally planted the Savannah Sunset Ninebark bush I purchased back in the spring.  I feel like having it on the end of the patio opposite of the Yellow Twig Dogwood balances the area.

I planted the New York Ironweed and an Alma Potschke aster near the little water feature, and gave the curly willow a drastic pruning.

The last time I pruned her, I stuck the branches in the big planter out front and managed to get a few of them to root.  I have given away those offspring, and figured I'd try it again.  

I'm really starting to see the future of the backyard space, and can see the layout a little better.  It's beginning to transform into what's been in my head and look less like random areas.  The ultimate goal is to connect each space to make it a whole, continuous garden.

I planted a bunch of allium bulbs in the cottage gardens yesterday and watered them in this morning.  I was shocked to find the deer had gone through the cottage garden and jumped the fence, then laid waste to my green bean plants in the hillside garden! 

Those plants were covered with leaves and had at least enough beans for one last meal on them.  The beans weren't the only victims - they nibbled on my Pagoda Dogwood tree, ate all the little heads of broccoli, and even sampled some of the Pale Purple and Bush's Coneflowers that I had in the cement block bed.  They've never jumped the fence before, I can't believe it.

Speaking of the hillside garden, I've managed to empty two more beds of perennials.  I don't think I'll be doing much more transplanting after this week, but hopefully it will spur me on to empty the rest so that I have more room for vegetables next year.  I want to move the Montauk Daisy out and transplant her somewhere else - that takes up an entire bed itself!  I've never had real success with this plant.  It's a late season bloomer and can be beautiful, but it really has never been happy enough to bloom profusely.  It's a great space eating plant, though, so it may go somewhere where more interest is needed.  Because it's a fall bloomer, she won't be transplanted until spring.

 The other beds have mostly iris and one lavender plant, all of which I plan to move to the alpine garden in the spring.

And as much as I curse them, I have to admit the Jerusalem Artichoke has some spectacular flowers. 

I didn't plant any of those on purpose; they hitched a ride in the roots of my daylily plants when I moved, and I'm still trying to peel them out!  The ones in the hillside garden are the result of me tossing tubers out of the cement block bed when I dig them up.   

I still have plenty of puttering to do before snow flies and the ground freezes, but for now I'll enjoy the limited daylight and relative warmth while I can.

Some late season colors from around the gardens that I'm enjoying while puttering - the cosmos have really produced despite the lack of water:

And as I finish this post the next morning, these jerks have once again breached the hillside garden walls and laid waste to everything they hadn't touched the night before.  

 So much for my brussel sprouts.  I love the wildlife, I say through gritted teeth.