We are Nearing the Middle of March
Oh sorry, we are nearing the middle of April but it sure feels like March. Ugh. Cold, raw days…some days with snow…then we have one and a half nice days then back to cold, raw and cloudy. The worst was yesterday, though.
That snow was forecasted to be one to three inches, and by the time we went out to do morning chores it was five inches. By the time it had more or less finished it was plus five. The majority of it is gone, but there is enough to remind me that it was here.
We did have a dusting of snow on Flower Shed Friday, that was also beautiful and it didn’t last long. It had to make way for the next day’s snow.
Early in the week I did that tetris thing between the willow garden and the twiggery, moving things hither and yon. Almost all of the flowering shrubs are now in the twiggery, getting well watered and all the willow sticks are now planted in the willowery. Steve was able to till the rows where they were going to be planted and in a couple of hours I had them all in. Yay? Did I feel my body parts that evening? I think a total of 40 willow sticks went in. Let’s just hope they take. They should.
I have one lonely crate of tulips remaining in the dirty room and I think if we see sunshine this week they will be going out with the others in the bulb room. What a season that has been. The first half harvested, the second half, the ones in the ground are just needing some sun and warmer temps to get them really going. They are looking good, they just seem to be slow. Hopefully with some sun and warmer temps they will catch up and there won’t be a lull between the two crops. Fingers crossed.
Speaking of tulips, since it was snowing outside I thought I would finally sit down at the computer and get next year’s tulips ordered. That is quite the job but both orders are out. I have ordered some really beautiful ones, I hope, and there will be twenty two varieties of forced ones and nineteen? of the in ground ones so there will be plenty of variety for all of us.
I also started the last ranunculus I have. I decided that the last batch I did isn’t doing anything. Lesson learned. No matter what, after soaking them put them in trays and sprout them before they go into the ground so they will have roots and a bit of green to get them going. Planting them in the ground right after soaking them just hasn’t worked, hence the third planting.
This coming week is another busy one, the next batch of seeding, ranunculus planting by Thursday, yup, they should be ready to go into the ground by then, they are already starting to show green bits. I have a bunch of perennial seedlings that have to get into the ground… you know, all that cool flower farming stuff.
Here are the photos from last week’s #windowframethursday. Even today it still looks beautiful, even more so because the tulips have opened up.
I will turn you over to Steve. Have a great week, hopefully a sunny and slightly warmer one than we have been having.
Allie. I dream of flowers, do you?