The Last Sunday of March

The Last Sunday of March

To be honest, I won’t miss March. It has been crazy weather wise, beautiful days to melt the snow, and then the next day a few days of winter returning where the winter coat comes back out for barn chores and garden walks. Not that the beginning of April will be much nicer but it is a lovely thought to have. And yes, I still have snow piles, but nothing like what they were last week.

The snow is finally gone out of the cutting garden so I made my official foray into the garden on Friday. It is still far to early to see much growth, but it has been good to be able to get in and sorta check on the spring process. The voles were very active and dined very well over the winter. I don’t think I have lost complete crops, yet, but they were certainly active. One just has to breath deeply and look at it as a way to change it up. Again.

Speaking of changing it up…Garth is in with his digger and in two days has done major work in the twiggery, also known as where the donkeys were. Stumps have been pulled, rocks discovered, some serious grading and this picture doesn’t say it all but holy moly, what a difference. I have tons of room now for more shrubs and trees!

I can’t believe that I won’t have any full bulb crates to haul in tomorrow. It will be a shock to my system. Now I am just taking out empty crates and stacking them up for the meantime, and the flowers are getting pulled and put into the cooler. Slowly the dirty room will empty of bulb crates and I can think about taking chrysanthemum cuttings, which won’t be nearly a space hog but will still keep the room dirty. That and I have a lot more seeding to do as well, the summer annuals will needed to be started this week or next.

With our bitter cold temperatures the last few nights I have double frost clothed the seedlings and ranuncs and anemones. Yes, I know that they are cold hardy, but not that cold hardy. Looking at the forecast it looks as though I can put away the protection for a week. With the double layers they seem to have come through well, but when it gets down to 18-20 degrees overnight they need protection.

My first hellebore bloomed for me on Friday.

Just cause I can I am taking a Zoom floral design class with a designer in Belgium, Emily of Fleuropean. It is am interesting group; a few Canadians, a Swiss, German, and a number of us from the US, but we are from all over. We are to design along with everyone on Zoom, which is weird, but anyway, it is interesting. This is what I made. I used everything that I am growing here so I was far more limited than the Europeans, but it works.

All done in a small bowl and held together with a hairpin frog. Next week’s creation will be also using chickenwire taped down for more stability. I still have limitations in flowers but i really don’t think this is all that bad.

Next Sunday is Easter! I am going to be creating mixed bouquets for the shed and Flag Leaf Bakery. Everything will be from the farm so it will include tulips, willow, branches, narcissus and hyacinths. I just want to mix it up for the holiday, and to see if I could get the timing right for easter. Then we will be back to tulip bunches until I have narcissus and more.

One last photo before I send this over to Steve for his editing and ditty.

So until next week, Allie. I dream of flowers, do you?