Spring is Here!

Spring is here - with its typical roller coaster of hot and cold weather. 80+ on Wednesday, 50-ish today. That's okay with me. Confusing, but okay! What to wear, what to wear? Susan Hill says that "gardening is [one of] the most optimistic and hopeful" of human activities. I would go a step further and say that spring really is the most optimistic of the gardening seasons. Perennials return and annuals re-seed even in the midst of the unpredictable and oftentimes inhospitable weather. So many worry about whether the crocuses and daffodils will survive a bit of snow. Leave them alone, I say, they've been doing this for millennia without our help and they'll do fine again this year.

from late March...

I put the rain barrels out this week, hopefully for good. They'll be okay with no hard freezes.

Meanwhile, spring flowers and cool-weather crops are making their appearances. Peas finally came up. A little slow, but there will be peas yet! Lettuce and radishes beat them to the sunlight by about a week. The rhubarbs the mowers didn't destroy by mistake are back. Maybe this year I can keep it from bolting and get enough for a pie...

horseradish

lilac

peony

pieris

radishes

redbud

blueberries

raspberries

bleeding hearts

forsythia

peas!

redwood

rhubarb

sedum

weeping willow