Finally, Some Spring!

The sun came out today. It actually got warm. Spring may finally come to the Northwest. The cherry tree is blooming nicely. Hopefully some of these will turn into cherries that I get to eat before the birds find them all. It’s time to cut the grass in the back yard, but these little daisies are just so happy, I can’t quite bring myself to do it. Need to, though – the established grass is shading the new growth. Although, maybe I shouldn’t on the grounds that the new seedlings will need less supplemental water if they are shaded… The …

Getting Greener

It’s the second sunny day in a row and I’ve spent parts of both days puttering in the garden(s). I’ve given up on growing foxgloves from seed and have finally just bought potted foxgloves and planted them in front of the front fence, with a couple of pansies. With any luck, they’ll fill in (maybe if I don’t plant the seeds but let them do it on their own I’ll get a whole row of foxgloves). Not sure how I’ll keep the neighborhood kids from grabbing the flower stalks and beating each other with them… The backyard is all cleaned …

Moving Out

My tree has a new home! I contacted a nursery, malls, the local Boys & Girls Club, friends at Microsoft. I posted to our local parents email list and the Seattle freecycle group. But in the end it was the landscape service providers for our neighborhood who had a space tall enough for a 12 foot tree. So late last week, on a day with rain (despite being forecast otherwise), this beloved family member moved out. The Tree has been launched into a new life, out of the nest. Impact Property Services, our neighborhood’s landscape services company, has an office …

Impatience

On the way in from lunch the other day, I peeked under the row cover to check on the seeds I planted a few weeks back. Cliff Mass wrote recently that so far our spring (ok, our March) has been cooler than average, and it shows. No sign yet of the peas or of the carrots and spinach under the row cover. It’s a bit too soon for the onion seeds in the sun room to have visibly germinated, but that didn’t stop me from peeking there, either. Come on, Spring! Grow, Green Things, Grow!

The Circle of Potatoes

Today, I used up the last of our stored potatoes, turning them into soup for tonight’s dinner. They weren’t much good for anything else, all shrivelly and going soft and putting out seriously desperate roots. Soup was good, though. I’m thinking I’ll drape the potato box with heavy black cloth next year, on the theory that the opening and closing of the pantry door, not to mention turning on the pantry light, for the last six months has provided enough stimulus for the potatoes to think they should start getting ready to make more potatoes. Perhaps a colder environment would …