Sunday, March 8, 2009

Spring Renewal

Yesterday we had a gorgeous day full of sunshine and warm temperatures. It was the kind of day that lets you know Spring is around the corner. Neighbors came out of their long winter hibernation. I watched several guys working together to put in some new garden beds of some sort and they were working a large garden tiller. Their wives and children came out to watch and talk. Everyone was happy and seemed to me to be full of hope for the future.

For myself, we made a trip to Lowe's and purchased several bags of mulch and compost, some bone meal, and some pre-emergent crabgrass treatment. It seems like no matter how much mulch we stuff into the little SUV, there is never enough and so another trip will be in order. This is one of my favorite times of the year. I spent a very pleasant afternoon trimming the dead off of our perennials, raking out the debris from the beds and beginning the process of mulching for Spring.

There are always surprises in the garden bed and I think that is one of the reasons I love it so. I love finding the tender green shoots of perennials that are coming back this year. It fills me with hope and reminds me that everything can have a new beginning. I guess it basically restores my faith each year to see these tiny miracles in my garden. The clematis around the mailbox had new shoots of growth much to my surprise. I didn't know it was coming along that far already and so today I will make a support for it of some string that I rig up around the mailbox. All of the neighbors have clematis growing around their mailboxes of different varieties and we really enjoy seeing them when they are in full bloom.

Last year we had snapdragons that came back and we weren't expecting that at all. I guess they grew from the seed pods I had tossed in the bed the year before. They actually did quite well. I love yellow snapdragons because they remind me of buttered popcorn!!!

Yesterday I trimmed back the yellow twig dogwoods and then began digging out one of the dogwoods that we want to move to the back yard because it is not leafing out very well where it is planted now. This was another surprise when I discovered how far the roots had grown out. We bought this thing from Walmart and it was a scrawny little plant and then in no time it became this very large shrub with these big roots. I'll have to have help from a friend of ours to get it out today because I couldn't finish the job yesterday.

I have several more bushes to pull out around the house. We are in the process of building flower beds around the house because it basically had no landscaping when we bought it. This year we plan to put in a rose garden on the sunny side of the house. I'm really looking forward to that because roses are one of my favorite flowers. A little love and care is always rewarded with those beautiful, fragrant blooms.

Come on Spring!!!! We're happy to see you have decided to visit again!!!

4 comments:

  1. I know all of you are especially happy for Spring after all the snow and ice. Can't wait to see some photos posted of all your beautiful things growing.

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  2. I was looking at your profile and noticed that you are a follower of 3 of my blogs. Did you know I had a 4h?!? ha! I'm really addicted. The 4th one is mylittleneckofthewoods.blogspot.com

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  3. I just deleted mylittleneckofthewoods. It was kind of a blog like the one you're writing here and I just don't think I have the talent for writing as you do. I am thinking of opening up a "store" on blogger and selling my "creations". I've come up with an idea for a name - With These Hands - what do you think? With this economy and the stock market the way it is, we need the money!

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  4. I bet you could sell a lot through your blog. Email me what you are thinking about and I can point you to some people who have been very successful doing that.

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