Planning for Spring, (there's still plenty of time....)

Planning for Spring, (there's still plenty of time....)

Don't you just want to climb up and see where these quirky stairs lead?

They may not be the safest staircase I've seen but they sure are fun. 

The colors and bird photos remind me of spring as well, which leads me to this post.

Time to start planning the garden...if there's going to be one or not and if so what will be in it.

Now that I'm working again the task, as much as I normally like it, seems daunting. 

I have so many grand plans in my head and can imagine something like this...

Or this.....

but since I don't have a full time gardening staff I'm pretty sure I should shoot for something like this

Okay, maybe I'll go somewhere in between.

I'm contemplating more container gardens around the yard... 

Apparently you can use about anything that can hold soil. Now where did I put my old guitar???

Maybe I can lash my clementine boxes together into some fabulous array?

I'd also like to eventually have cold frames... 

and a small movable greenhouse...

and I really like the idea of this living succulent wreath....

And let's not forget the herb garden and flower beds...

See what I mean...too many ideas for one season. 

I'll have to see what I can manage since I'll be doing most of it myself. I love digging, planting, weeding, mowing and watching everything come together. It's pretty satisfying. I have friends that are great gardeners (you know who you are Ruth, Glenda, Joyce, Lisa) and I could be envious, but I know they started like me and I have to keep learning, failing, succeeding and enjoying the process.

My birdbath bowl broke last fall because I was working and too darn lazy to bring it in before it was a birdie skating rink, which of course cracked it. So I must find a replacement for that. The birds liked it and it's nice to have them out there eating the unwanted bugs.

Then there's the prep work, like masking off a room before you can paint it....

before I do anything I have to milky spore the whole acreage to kill the Japanese Beetle eggs and larva before they hatch and kill my fruit trees again this year. I ended up with one wizened apple after all the gorgeous blossoms on everything. I picked a thousand of them and some other horrid little brown beetles off my trees and herbs (RIP Basil) and plunged them to their deaths in rubbing alcohol, but let me tell you I'm sooooo not into doing that again, nor do I have the time, so Milky Spore it is!

So, I'm going to go up the quirky stairs of my mind and see what's waiting up there for spring.

Any ideas you want to share, any sage advice or spare containers or mature fruit trees?

What are your plans?

Do tell.

Happy Planning!

Leanne

photos courtesy of Pinterest, the place that inspires you & makes you feel inferior all at the same time.

Remember these?

I didn't think so.

They're flowers. 

A distant memory for me now.

It's March so 6 more weeks of winter, unless we do a repeat of 1978 when I walked home from school at the end of April in a Nor'easter. Can we say frostbite? 

All the way home I regretted my choice of a dress. 

Some of you remember this from my facebook page but: 

I'm at work last month and a customer said to me, 

"Only another month till spring, March will be nice".

To which I asked, "Are you from New England?" 

(already knowing the answer)

"No", he says.

I said, "I have some bad news for you".

He probably thinks I'm just a cranky New England pessimist.

Time will tell. But this week until yesterday it was below zero every morning and in the teens in the afternoons. Yesterday it was 7 above though so things are improving.

See below for accurate March conditions.

So far I'm feeling confident. We'll have some nice days here and there but Winter likes to linger here as long as it can. I can't blame it really, it's a pretty nice place to hang out. 

Maybe it is what makes us so appreciate the spring and the flowers when they finally do arrive for good in May before the blazing heat of summer arrives in June and settles in until September. At least we don't have the sun rising at midnight like in Alaska, heavens, we're crotchety enough already. If you're visiting in pre-spring otherwise known as Mud Season (March and April) think of us as bears coming out of hibernation. By now we're pretty tired of alternately being holed up inside in sub-zero weather, shoveling the driveway, de-icing the car, and calculating the rationing of the rest of the wood supply. 

It is a land of extremes in every respect I can think of. Weather, stark wilderness and populated coastline, wealth and poverty, cranky and kind people, beauty and urbanization, really good and really bad architecture. Opposites co-existing, making each more extreme by the very existence of the other. 

I'm sure New England isn't the only place these things could be said about, but we really do have a lot going for us where I live. Mountains and seaside, lakes and rivers, Outdoor recreation year-round, museums and orchards, National Parks and Major cities (when so desired) are all within an hour's ride. Pretty much all you could ask for.

Hmmm. Perhaps I should consider a job with the tourism marketing dept.? I might feel like a bit of a phony though considering that if someone offered me a sweet little house in Southern California where it's 75 degrees all year I might be on the next plane. But I digress.

I'm reminding myself as winter drags it's heels that there are things to look forward to before we have to 

hunker down and do it all again next year. 

I'm looking forward to the garden...

maybe I can finish filling it in this year

And the baby birds...

Trips to the coast...

Apple blossoms...

That's a good start.

Hope you all have a nice farewell to winter

 and a beautiful spring!

 Bloom where you're planted!