Spring fever

The first day of spring brought everyone outside, but because I have a habit of leaving the back door open on nice days - no screen door - I sometimes have unexpected visitors. This afternoon it was a Carolina wren who flew in and landed on the window screen at the other end of the sitting room.

 

 

The wrens are usually very bossy and vocal, but this one just froze there. At one point it made some sad little mewing sounds, but that was all. Eventually, with a little encouragement from me that it probably ignored, the wren flew to a picture frame, then perched above the door frame, and finally flew back out again. Wish I knew what it told its mate about this little adventure.

They grow up so fast

The saga of the seedlings continues. I planted them with some trepidation and placed them on the seed-starting table. This table has two slots for the trays on which the seed trays live. I had the trays on the lower slot, so of course the fluorescent light was too high above the seedlings. But I reasoned that I had about a week before buying additional chain became necessary.

Not so - some of the seedlings emerged immediately and became leggy almost overnight. So yesterday, I was measuring the amount of chain needed when light dawned. Why not just move the trays to the higher slot, where they would be close enough to the light? You see why my career choice has never included anything the slightest bit mechanical.

Easy enough, but when I tried to hook the light to a higher link on the chain, there came a pop! and a burst of light, and the light fixture went dead. Could it be the ballast? After two new bulbs, these meant especially for gardening, and then, when they still didn't work, a new light fixture, the seedlings should at last be a bit happier.

Moral of the story: my lack of faith in my own mechanical abilities (or even common sense, I'm afraid) is fully justified.

 

Here are the seedlings just emerging...

 and here they are reaching up to the light. The fact that my hand-scribbled lists of which seeds were planted in which tray, and in which order, have inevitably gotten mixed up in the course of all of this just means more excitement later, when I try to figure out what the heck I have actually been growing.

Spring beauties

The early spring bulbs are much appreciated this year after all that snow. It's amazing how the winter aconite can show off after a few days of sun. Here they are under the oak tree, just opening...

 

 

and here they are at the end of a sunny day.

I have also loved the tommy crocuses that Mom liked so well. I hate planting bulbs, even though these are as easy as anything to stick in the ground, but I had no idea how much I would love their smiling faces:

 

 

If I just keep planting another 50-100 each year, the front lawn will soon be filled with them.

Seedlings

 

Unlovely, but full of hope: the two seed-starting trays. Contents include cleome, tithonia, two kinds of cosmos, bronze fennel, and cardinal climber vine. Need to get additional chains to bring the lights down close to the seedlings, but I have a few days to get that together.

I'm probably a bit late with this, since the extension agent said in the paper that our average last frost is April 20-30, not May 10th as I had remembered. (And fyi, the first frost is October 19-29 by his reckoning).

For some reason this process makes me very nervous - I guess because the chance of killing off the babies is so high - but onward!

The new madness

This year, for the first time in many years, I decided to start some things from seed. A long time ago, I bought a seed-starting setup from Genine Lentine (was that her name?) when she had the garden shop downtown. It's in the basement, where it has something of the look of an unused piece of exercise equipment.

 

The seed-starting system should still work, if I can figure it out again. I should be home most of the next few months, so I can water and nurture the little babies.

 

 

Here's the collection of seeds. Mostly flowers, a few herbs...shouldn't be too hard, right?? I did manage not to buy seeds of English primroses once I went online and discovered how tricky they are to grow. These should all be easy peasy. Ha!

The cardinal climber vine is meant to twine around the S&H trellis, which I aim to put up in April. I also have designs on the sunny side of the front lawn for more garden beds, where these sum-lovers will find a home. Hmmm.

Signs of spring

Even while the snow was falling, the birds were singing madly. They were certainly ready for spring, as was the maple tree. Here are the red buds showing through the snowfall.

 

Two weeks after the last storm, the snow is gradually melting. Yesterday was the first day the ground reappeared. And what should be growing, but snowdrops! I even found some aconite leaves. Here is the evidence: aconite, hellebore unfurling, first crocus of 2010:

 

 

 

You might need to click on the photos to see what I'm talking about. Hope!

The Poor Man's Mulch

Boy, did we get a lot of it! After four snowstorms, I've lost track of just how much snow fell in Ferry Farm, but it was at least a couple feet. The last time we had anything like this was 1996. Climate change is spooky... Here are a couple images.

 

 

 

The snow allows evergreens to show at their best. Most of the time, my eyes seem to glide right past them. But the snow reveals their structure in the most beautiful ways. Here are two pictures of the snow-bedecked cedar in the back yard.