Sunday, March 06, 2016

What's happening in the Garden....



Well, it's March, and it all just depends where you're looking, what time of day it is, the state of the current wind (be it breezy or blowing) and just where you are in the schedule of intermittent storms that tumble in from the Coast, drop a little shower or two, bluster around and then move off to the East to make room for a session of sunshine.

A most peculiar month.

Last night we had a lovely rainfall, - puddles all over the lane, and one in particular that inspired a small thirsty robin to linger and drink, - the first robin of the season although my son tells me they have been as far north as the Chilcotin.

I go out into the garden when the sun is shining, and usually I manage an hour or so of losing myself in the task of clearing away leaves and old stalks, so that eventually a small bed will look like this...


with the bulbs and the iris and the elephant's ear around the Mountain Ash.

Over in the main raised bed there are a few crocus, and some lovely Lenten Roses.





and a few clumps of daffodils promise to be in bloom to grace the Easter altar.


There is blue sky to the west, tastefully decorated with wispy white clouds, and inside
the sun shines on last year's amaryllis which is blooming again, and on some 
sweet sticks of forsythia from our daughter's little bush.





But look, - here in the east the clouds are still a reminder that March can be just as fickle as April....


It is absolutely marvelous to be able to get out and dig around, poking at the scarlet stubs of the peony and the lacy delphinium leaves.

I spent all of yesterday's garden allotment time digging out buttercups.  One plant came into my garden twenty years ago, along with some early oriental peonies.  They have traveled with us, from garden to garden, but this year I seem to have lost the peonies,  Not so the buttercups, - much as I love their cheery faces they are terribly invasive and have spread the length and width of the bed, crowding out all their neighbours.


I'm glad I left some of them to begin the cycle again.....

2 comments:

John "By Stargoose And Hanglands" said...

Glad to hear that you've been able to get out on the garden. Here it's been so mild and wet that the weeds have kept growing all winter but going out to do anything about it just makes more mess. I have a problem with buttercups on my mother's garden; she loves them so I always feel compelled to leave some for her though, as you say, they are terribly invasive.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

I miss early Spring!! Thank you for the reminder of its beauty. We somehow brought buttercups home one year on the wood we cut for winter (back when we lived where we had winter and spring)... I remember how thrilled I was at first when they bloomed under where the wood pile had been and then (of course you know the rest of that story). But they are so pretty -- I really do love yellow flowers. Little bits of sunshine.