Spring?

Just when we thought warm weather was finally here to stay, it had to go and snow. April snow can be some of the most demoralizing weather - winter just doesn't want to let go of it's grip on our great state, but it has to, eventually.... Right?

I planted my bare-root strawberries two weeks ago, and they just had time to sprout new little leaves before they were hit with the cold slushy snowstorm that came on Tuesday. They're hearty little things though, and they didn't seem to mind it one bit.

As I write this it's warmed up into the forties, and it's raining outside. A cold rain for sure, but a springy April sort of rain that does promise to bring May flowers.

Here's the strawberry bed from afar. You still can't see the little sprouting plants, but they are there, and despite the cold they're still very much alive.

I took advantage of some warm sunny weather last Sunday to finish the majority of the digging of the new beds in the side yard. Two are approx. 4x8 and the other three are 4x10. I edged the bed with logs from the big Box Elder that we had taken down last fall, and the paths between the beds are covered with wood chips from that same tree. I still have some work to do on the beds themselves, and I want to make the edging a little better, but the majority of the digging is done. It will be time to plant peas and cilantro as soon as the weather decides to cooperate.

One of our neighbors gave us these two grape vines, which I also planted in the side yard. It's kind of hard to believe that these two inert looking sticks will grow to be big healthy vines, but stranger things have happened.

I didn't get a picture, but the side-yard is also now home to a little semi-dwarf Liberty apple tree. We really wanted an apple in the patio, and in order for it to pollinate we needed two, so we got two.

We have now made two trips to the garden center for topsoil to fill the big hole in the patio, and we still don't have nearly enough. This is where the box elder was, and we've decided to put a little garden bed there since the ground is sure to settle in the next few years meaning that repaving it now would be silly. So far we've planted a dwarf honeycrisp apple tree and two Virginia bluebell plants.... I have plans for ferns, an elephant ear, and perhaps a few hostas or other shade loving plants. Ornamental perennials are not always number one of my list of things to grow, but this seems like a good spot for them.

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