Spring has Sprung

Don't even know what to take pictures of this weekend. Everything is progressing so quickly. On Saturday we couldn't find any sprouting Jack in the Pulpits, and on Sunday they were everywhere. I swear the Ostrich Ferns grew 4 inches high overnight, and Maureen told me that was the photo to take. And the Liatris began to show its shoots that I could not find at all on Friday.

This weekend was a big one for yard work. Gotta do a few of those in the spring. On Saturday I dug up some of the overgrown Hostas along the front walk, divided them and replanted enough to be as full as before. With what was left, and that was about 1/3 of the plants, I planted the entire new bed beneath the Willow in the back yard. While I was doing that, Bill was digging out all of last year's compost, sifting it, and storing the resulting wonderful soil in a couple of containers. After he was done with that, I took the wheelbarrow and spread a couple of loads on the original berm garden. That hasn't had any amendment for several years, and can use the organic content from the compost. Only concern is that since we do "slow" composting there may be a lot of weed seeds just waiting to germinate. With luck, we will find a musk melon or a watermelon or a tomato. But there are many weeds in this yard that could be what comes from the compost.

After all the work of the compost and the transplanting the last activity of the day was to mow the lawn for the first time this year. Many places didn't really need it, but many did, and we had to keep things even. Bill started, but I stopped him and asked him to do the raking and pickup of the willow branches while I finished the mowing. Took about an hour and a little bit more, but it did look good when I was through. Then just a few little tasks, watering in the new Yews on the west side, and the May Apple and the Russell Lupines I planted.

Bed was good Saturday night. We were both very tired. After a good video sleep came. On Sunday we rode our bikes up to Shopko to pick up some prescriptions, and then got home for the day. We brought out each large willow stem that we had piled up along the creek and hauled it out to the roadside to be picked up this week. I don't know why we did that pile, but it has seemed to encourage rabbits and probably other critters who wreak havoc on the gardens. Now it is gone.

Bill roamed the woods to find rocks that would be more useful in other garden places - he found three pretty big ones to embellish the new garden in front that I consider his to design. He also scraped out the chips that we used to fill in the space behind his most recent wall, and we found dirt and soil to fill in with a few chips on top. This is in order to be able to plant something there for next spring - the front isn't very attractive and needs Spring interest for sure.

Maureen came over to get some plants for her garden, and we found Purple Coneflowers, a Compass Plant, a German Statis plant, some Sedum that I can't identify, and a couple of Shasta Daisies. I look forward to hearing how they grow.

I did a little pruning of the Clematis plants that are growing up the gazebo, and tested the pond for pH levels. Did spot the two remaining goldfish that I had over-wintered, and also some of the little ones that Lee and Lin gave me last week. But the pond is cloudy, and I'm not sure why. Maybe the pH is wrong, maybe something else.

Emerging this week: Hostas, Liatris, Jack in the Pulpit, the Spring Beauties, Marsh Marigold, Pulminaria, Bleeding Hearts grew up to 7 inches high and will bloom next week.

Moved the Hibiscus plants out to the porch, but cover it with burlap over cold nights and sunny days. Moved the geraniums from the basement to the greenhouse, and continue to keep the cannas watered there. I did check the cannas that I planted several weeks ago in the deck planter. I was worried that no sprouts had emerged yet, and feared that the cold weather had made them rot under the ground. But when I carefully dug down, I found some nicely growing shoots and quickly buried them again.

There is so much more going on that I find it difficult to write about everything. Hard for me to understand why people leave Wisconsin at this time of year. January maybe, but definitely not April.