The evenings are still just a couple degrees above 0C, but daytime temps are now between 10-20C and very sunny, so it’s definitely spring. Everything is budding, flowers are starting to appear and butterflies are everywhere. I’ve started cleaning up the garden and grounds best as I can, though I’m sure it will take at least a few years before everything is under control. So far, I’ve cleaned up the dead matter from the perennial beds around the house, pruned two raspberry hedges and a grapevine. Definitely have the beginnings of a huge new compost heap in the corner of our lot as a result. Most of the seedlings I started (as well as a good portion of my houseplants) have been moved to the greenhouse and we broke ground today on a new raised bed.
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- Small narcissi (pretty sure they’re Tête à têtes) alongside our driveway.
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- Larger narcissi alongside our driveway. There are also white ones.
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- Another view of the daffodil bank.
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- Not sure what variety these big ones are other than some sort of trumpet. We’ll see next week.
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- Siberian squill circling one of our fruit trees.
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- Snowdrops ringing another small tree trunk.
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- My greenhouse! It will need a bit of patching up and repainting in the next few years, but it is made of window glass, so it’s pretty sturdy.
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- Rhubarb, starting to grow leaves. Last week, they looked like bright red dinosaur eggs.
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- Two days later and you can see how much they’ve grown. Soon, they will be in a pie!
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- The buds on the grapevine in the greenhouse are about ready to break any day now.
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- Some of my cucurbit seedlings.
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- More seedlings. I always plant double since they are prone to dying when transplanted.
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- First leaf on my baby pumpkin :-)
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- Pumpkins moved to the greenhouse.
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- More baby squash in the greenhouse. They look so happy!
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- Baby squash at my kitchen window prior to the move.
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- Tommi’s grandmother gave me this clivia our first year here. Finally, it has a chance of flowering again.
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- I seeded this lavender last spring and it hung on to dear life all winter. Now it’s starting to perk up.
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- I bought a new pink peony but still haven’t decided where to plant it.
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- There is a little pond with a bank of iris and daylily along the sides. Need to clean it up still.
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- Currant and gooseberry bushes all in a row, starting to break bud.
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- More currant bush buds. We’re going to have a LOT of fruit.
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- Our covered strawberry patch, in need of a bit of TLC. Plants are starting to leaf out so need to fix soon.
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- The left side of the raspberry thicket. Pruned down to the just the one year canes after a day’s work.
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- Right side of the raspberry thicket. LOVE raspberries, so am happy there are so many.
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- Raspberry buds.
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- A horsetail shoot — these have been popping up amongst the right raspberries.
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- Pepe, the neighbor’s cat. He hasn’t quite grasped that his family moved next door.
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- …so he still keeps coming to our door instead and following us around.
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- He’s a sweet little guy, though, and will hopefully be taking care of any rodents for us.
