Starting Spring

The official Before picture. No leaves to speak of, and the grass is just starting to green up. In a month there will be pink blossoms on the Redbuds and tulips in bloom and weeds everywhere. O dear.

We are starting our veggie garden beds any minute and have purchased the raw materials. One ton of topsoil and composted manure, plus two bales of straw. I will repeat my soil prep method of layering straw, compost and topsoil, with a little peat moss tossed in for good measure. No digging this time. We have to construct the frames yet, but they will be 12” high and will just sit on the ground and be filled with the soil mix. We have heard that the microbes in the composted manure will continue to work on the base earth, which is totally clay, so we’ll see if the roots have somewhere to go beneath the loose bed soil. Or not.

Yesterday being the first day of Spring I decided the water lilies had to go into the pond. I put on my tall  pink boots and enlisted Dave to hold onto me as I waded into the very soft mud of  the pond. I was sure I would get stuck and have to be rescued. There should have been cameras ready to capture this foolishness, but in essence it was Dave who having the longer arms was able to get the root balls of the lilies out far enough from the pond’s edge to have a chance at surviving. This red flower is a plastic marker to show where the plant ended up. Since the water level fluctuates wildly we had to make certain to get the root out far enough to actually be in water midsummer.

I am really jumping the gun on Spring, but one can’t help oneself when clematis, daffodils, and lilies are shooting upwards all around the yard.

 Clematis and Lilies