The First Spring Bouquet

Yesterday was a beautiful day. We had sun and it was dry. We were able to get outside and work in the yard. The dogs and Abby the Alpha Cat were busy and enjoyed themselves too. After the long winter, the first few days spent in the yard consist of cleaning up and getting things ready for the upcoming Spring.


This flower bed is bordered with Sweet Alyssum, which I have discovered is a very versatile flower. Bees love the little tiny white flowers, the scent is heavely, and it makes for a great ground cover, smothering out bothersome weeds. It is also a snap to control because it has a central root system that is easy to pull up. It is self-seeding, and in the early spring the sparrows use the dried stems for their nests.

Last year the sparrows cleaned up all of the brown stems in one week. I'm going to leave the bed as it is for a couple more weeks so the birds can take what they want. I imagine the dried stems make for a nice comfy nest, and it probably smells good too!

We are still getting our garden beds ready for planting in the next couple of weeks. The beds have been cleaned. Next weekend I'll add the compost and David will spade it all under with my organic fertilizer.

The bee balm plants will get moved in a couple of weeks as well, and I'll use this last bed for my salad garden.


Last summer I couldn't get beans to grow because of the lack of sun on the beds. David trimmed back an ornamental tree yesterday so the sun will shine again.

We've been eating commercially canned green beans this winter and we have NOT enjoyed them. My whole family has told me we have to have enough of the Blue Lake Pole Beans. I am hoping to have enough for 50-70 pints. The Blue Lake beans really are the best. They have more rich flavor, and process up beautifully.

One problem we may have this year, however, is Johnny. He just doesn't understand why he can't play in the garden beds. I think we are going to have to put up little fences around the beds to keep the puppy out. Nothing like having a baby dog in the family.

I pulled all of the fuchsias out from their winter hideaway and cleaned them up. I gave them haircuts. I think they liked their winter digs under the catwalk in the back. All of them have new, little pale green growths on them. Of course, they were mostly dry, but today's rain took care of that. This coming weekend they will be fed and then they will be off to do their growing thing. By the time the first weekend of April comes around I'll know how many I need to buy to replace the plants that didn't make it. We are heading out to Covington to The Earthworks to buy our fuchsias. The Earthworks is an amazing little nursery that specializes in fuchsias. They have 1000's and 1000's of little fuchsia starts of every type of fuchsia imaginable. It's a fuchsia lover's dream come true.

I love how vibrant the spring colors can be. The crocus are so vivid and so welcomed. This picture doesn't do the color justice. When the first crocus start blooming, there is hope of longer days and more sun to come.

I picked our first bouquet for Spring. The pink flowers are the Anniversary Rhodies, with daffodils. The greenery is forsynthia and cottoneaster. I added some rosemary springs, and then there is daphne for the sweet, sweet scent.

I leave you all with this picture. This is a knitted sweater for a horse. This is ambious. This is not a small horse, nor a small sweater. This is from Reynolds Lopi Volume 26. In case you're wondering, the sweater is made up in Lopi bulky weight yarn. It calls for 18 balls at 109 yards per ball. In other words, you are knitting up 1,962 yard of bulky weight yarn. That's knitting up about 4 pounds of yarn. That is heavy duty knitting on a pair of knitting needles.

The horse does look pretty dapper, doesn't he? He also looks very content. What a nice thing to do for a horse. It takes a lot of love to knit up such a big sweater. No wonder this horse looks content, he knows how loved he is.

Well, off to get some sleep.

TTFN

Sue