More Blooms!

I just can't seem to help myself. At some point during the week, I have to grab my camera and walk around the yard to snap some pictures. You'd think it was the first time spring has ever sprung.

This week it's all the crabapple trees that are blossoming. The air is like perfume. It is a treat to have them blooming at least a couple of weeks ahead of "normal." I've even seen some lilacs blossoming in protected spots, and they can sometimes wait until June to come out.

I guess it's so rare in Minnesota that Mother Nature is ahead of us anxious gardeners that I have to have some record of when it finally happened. We're usually the ones ready to go first, and this year, we're scrambling just to keep up. No complaints.

Those Bloody Plants

Our warm spring has coaxed out some early blooms in the garden. For some reason, the first ones are always the "bloody" plants--Bleeding Heart and Bloodroot. Sounds kind of awful, doesn't it? But they are beautiful. And mostly effortless growers.

This Bleeding Heart was rescued from a neighbor's garden many years ago after they realized that it was a plant that would not bloom all summer. They did their best to kill it, but it was stubborn, so I took pity on it and popped it in my garden. It's been happily growing for me ever since.

The Bloodroot is from my Mom's garden, and she probably got it from her Mom, who got it from her Mom, etc. You never know where this one will show up. I've heard that ants help spread the seeds around, which makes sense since it tends to like to grow next to rocks or around tree roots.

These are the last two for the season. I found them hiding in a shadier and cooler part of the garden.

And my last garden news is that my arbor arrived. Yea! It took me a while to get it put together and anchored into the ground, but I love it. It's a PVC plastic which means no more painting! Whoo-hoo!

It's a huge relief to have this big project behind me. I'm especially glad that I was able to get it done and still have a little time to recover from all the hard work before I have to get all the rest of the plantings in for the summer.

Although I haven't had much energy in the evenings, I have made some progress on my Must-Have Cardigan. Apparently, this is the Clapotis of cable knits since there are over 400 knitters on Ravelry who have cast on this project. I guess that figures since I found the pattern on the rack at JoAnn Fabrics.

This Cascade 220 Heather yarn called "Lichen" is greener than it appears in the photo and has small flecks of other colors. Love this, too. The only change I have made in the pattern so far was to mirror the crossovers in the largest pattern rather than have them both cross in the same direction. What can I say? I like symmetry. Now I just have to remember that I did that when I knit the front pieces.

Back Off Bunnies! New Fence

Last summer's blooms were hiding a fence that truly needed some work. The paint was old and fading and the mesh fencing was torn. Some of the post tops had started to fall apart, and some of them even sported bumper crops of moss. I tried to talk myself into believing that it was Shabby Chic, but I knew better. It was just shabby.

So, last week I made myself a bargain. If I did all the work myself, I would splurge and buy a new arbor instead of trying to refinish my old one. Deal. And let me tell you, I earned my new arbor.

Several days later, after pulling nails, stripping old wire mesh, sanding, painting, and installing new rabbit proof fencing, I am happy to say I have a shiny new way to keep those &%#@ bunnies from eating my vegetable garden. I'm exhausted and have muscles that hurt that I didn't even know that I had, but it feels great to have this project done.



And the arbor is on order.

Forcing Blooms

The concept of "forcing blooms" sounds funny. "You must bloom now!" It's all about hurrying spring along inside before it's ready to happen for real outside.

Last month, after all the snow had melted, I went outside and pruned a misshapen crabapple tree that we have in our backyard, and rather than just toss all of the trimmings, I brought some of them inside and tried to force their blooms to come a little bit early. Every few days, I snapped a picture and here's what the process looked like. (Wow. It looks just like it looks when it does it outside.)






It was a fun experiment, but not as easy as it sounds. The trick is all in the water.

When the branches are first cut, it's important to prepare them to absorb as much water as possible. I took the freshly cut branches out to our patio stones and with a hammer pounded the cut end to break open the base about three inches up the branch. Once they're in the container, from then on it's all about keeping the water fresh. Almost every day I dumped out the old water, rinsed off the branch ends, and replaced the old water with new. As soon as I'd get busy or just forget to do that, the buds would wilt. Like I said, it was a fun experiment, but next year I think I'll make it easier on myself and be patient and wait for the real thing outside.

Happy Easter

Spring weather and Easter don't always go together in Minnesota, but this year Mother Nature is cooperating. The snow is gone, the grass is starting to green, and there are buds popping everywhere. Beautiful.

Even though it's too early for blooms outside, nothing says we can't have them in the house just to tide us over until we can really get our hands dirty.