The spring flowers are blooming and it has been gardening time for me.
What a feeling as your hard work starts to show results with new life in vegetable plants and flowers.
Our whole area is in bloom with dandelions. I know many of you think of them as a nuisance, but I see them as a great food source. We eat the whole plant as this time of the year. I chop it all up for salads as well as cooked for a vegetable. The flower heads are plucked clean around our place by the birds and chipmunks. Our whole yard has big bright yellow patches. Sunshine on the lawn that’s what I call dandelions.
Like the sun coming up in front of the old barn.
The birds have already picked all these clean.
Winter tried to hold on a little longer this spring with a few late dumps
of snow. The returning birds really appreciated having birds seeds to eat.
I sometimes forget the sprinkler going at night when there is still a heavy freeze.
But it always gives me a chance to add to my photo folder frozen in time.
Warmer weather did arrive allowing me to get busy in the greenhouse.
I enjoyed planting my seeds in pots outside the greenhouse with a beautiful view.
What a great feeling to get my seeds planted early this year in the greenhouse.
I really cut back this year in planting seeds. Want to scale down on the
gardening so I can try and spend more time making improvements in my many garden beds. They have been neglected for many years now. We still have our palm tree, oleander bush, grape vine, ginkgo tree and now some other new tree that won’t survive outside our winters here. The all made it through the winter in the greenhouse as well as my geraniums.
Hubby had already started hand turning and weeding the vegetable garden beds.
Oh what a relief after all these years to have help preparing the garden.
He even planted all the potatoes. Meanwhile I transplanted more raspberries and rhubarb to their new bed and planted all the onions, lettuce, beets, kale, Swiss chard, turnips, beans and lots of flower seeds.
The first of my perennials to bloom are my primroses.
Then a record breaking heat wave hit for a week. I was putting shorts on first thing in the morning, something I rarely do even in the summer as it’s normally so cold at night. So with the heat the flowers started popping with color.
I did some serious weeding in some of my perennial flower beds. I only have finished with the middle section of my big long one. There is so much creeping grasses in them I have had to lift the whole plants to get the grass roots out from the flower plants. That’s why I so love container planting. My wheel barrel is planted with wildflower seeds every year. I still have to make all my hanging baskets and potted flowers as well as plant my sunflower seedling everywhere.
Like I don’t have enough flower beds already I am making a new one in front of our new carport. It’s a work in progress I started last summer. But got the last of the grass removed and started filling with compost to mix and create some soil in it. All my flower beds are lined with old rail road ties we have moved around
for 30 years and used for some many different things.
The heat finally brought all my out all my wonderful garden friends the good old garden snake. Near some rock piles we have I have seen up to 5 sunning themselves. But this one I discovered must have had babies. Never seen this before. There are 3 young snakes wrap around the big one. Look closely you will see them all. Or perhaps they are males trying to mate.
The heat wave didn’t last so I covered everything in the garden to protect from possible frost and helps to keep the soil warm for germinating seeds.
Most my seeds were all sprouting by now.
I still have lots of planting ahead of me as all my seedlings I started in the greenhouse will soon be ready to be planted. I will wait till it warms up again a bit. Right now we are having lots of rain and near freezing nights. But the sun is always popping out sometime during the day. This is so not normal to not have freezing every night.
But in the greenhouse everything is still thriving
waiting to me moved or planted outside.
So the gardening will continue for a few more weeks. We are not going to do much camping this summer like we did last summer as upkeep has fallen behind when we are gone too much during the summer. But we love it here and feel like it is a paradise. I have speakers in the trees so music is always playing making the work more enjoyable. We always try and eat outside for lunch and enjoy the view and scenery around us. Watching the birds and occasionally wildlife.
So find a way to create and enjoy your own paradise
and have a
Good Morning… Good Afternoon… Good Night…
Whatever it is to you.
Photos & Words
by
Here I Am Carrie
