Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Making Progress


 As you can see our pond has really filled up with water this year. We didn't or should I say we haven't got any snow this year but lots and lots of rain. I just love this view from our yard. This picture was taken a coupe of days ago.

 As much as I love the nice weather we really needed some snow on the mountains. This is what it should look like this time of year. This picture was taken several years ago.


Quite a difference wouldn't you say...

 Our Lenten Rose is blooming very nicely this year. Lots of blooms on it. I tried to get a picture showing all of the blooms but couldn't quite get them.

 You can almost see all the blooms in the picture below.

I took this picture day before yesterday. Don and I checked the bees and they are doing very well. Bringing in pollen like crazy.
 
If you look close you can see the pollen on the legs of the bees.

 They are carrying so much pollen it was falling off of there legs on there way into the hive.

 When we were getting all the rain, Don and I took one day when there was a break and spread grass seed all over the paddock.

 We have spread about 5 large bags of seed in this area trying to get the grass to grow. I think we finally have succeeded. It is starting to grow like crazy.

Remember the tree that fell on our gate this winter during the hurricane force winds we were having. Well Don got started cutting it up into firewood for next year. Gonna be a nice addition to our wood pile.
 While Don was cutting the firewood I was working in the strawberry patch trying to get a lot of the debris out of the bed and just taking a look at what is going on. We had a few critters digging in the bed last year so we are going to have to dig up all the strawberries and fill the bed up and replant. Not looking forward to it but needs to be done.

 I had missed some of the starts and had thrown them on the ground and Don came along after he was done cutting the firewood and picked up the ones I missed and planted them in a flat to get them started. Promised some of the neighbors some starts. We will probably have a lot more when we work the bed.

 Yesterday I worked in my herb garden getting it weeded and cleaned up for the year. As I was weeding I found a whole bunch of garlic starts. Apparently I missed some garlic when I harvested last year. It is OK with me as I dug them up and separated them and replanted in different spots. Should have some garlic again this year.

 I took the fountain apart and scrubbed it down with the hose and a rag. It does look a lot better. Then I took some Iris that was being overtaken by weeds and grass, dug them up and planted them in front of the fountain. I hope they do well here.

 This is only a small patch of the garlic that I dug up. Looking forward to some fresh garlic.

Well that is all for now. We have been working hard trying to get things done early. Hope this year will bring new hope for all....

Friday, February 13, 2015

Spring Chores

 I finally got started with my spring chores today. As I was headed out the front door I saw that one of the pots that I had planted some Crocus in was starting to come really nice. The other 3 pots with bulbs planted in them are not doing as well.
Can't wait to see this when it is blooming.


Then I saw one of the Hyacinth bulbs blooming, but as you can see I really need to get into this bed and do some major weeding.


I took this picture of the Kiwi, my major chore for the day. It needed a haircut really bad. So I got out the loppers and pruners and started cutting away.


Now that is better. Can actually see the main stems. Looking pretty good. They produced pretty good last year but we didn't get them pruned early enough before they really started growing so this year I got a jump start on them.
All in all it was a pretty good day. I also got my roses pruned back and cleaned out the raspberry bed and put up a temporary fence around them to keep the deer from eating all the luscious new shoots coming up. Will need to put something more permanent up later.
All I have to do now is clean up the mess. Another chore.....did save some cuttings for starts for the neighbors.
Have a great day and don't forget to start planning your vegetable garden...