Gardening,  Outdoors

A Glimpse of Spring

Saturday was one of those February days that lets your know that spring is indeed on the way. Despite all of the rollercoaster temperatures, warmth is coming. We’re going to rollercoaster down once again later this week but for now we’re enjoying the high point of the rollercoaster, getting a look out of the landscape around us and knowing that the the growing season is coming.

Chris went and got the final load of compost for the edible garden beds and I filled up my remaining bed, he topped off one of his, we piled on some cypress needle and oak leaf mulch, and then installed the trellises at the ends of those beds. We’ll wait for this round of cold weather, scope out the 10 day forecast, and hopefully start planting tomatoes. Chris tempted fate and sowed some bean seeds—I decided to hold off until I get the tomatoes planted. But as I was tinkering around, pulling some weeds in the pots on the potting bench and surveying over everything that I need to do, I could feel happiness seeping again. I mean, I’m happy, but it’s been a while since I’ve been “gardening happy”. I even usually do a bit of a cleanup in January every year but haven’t felt the call to do that this year. Now that warmer days are more frequent I need to get on top of it!

We saw a few butterflies this weekend, a red admiral and another that wouldn’t sit still long enough for me to verify Chris’ goatweed leafwing ID. The birds are more active, too. The Chickasaw plum has a few buds beginning to thicken and I’m keeping an eye out for new growth on a lot of different plants. Chris has started the forms for the perimeter beds so we can start pouring concrete for those. I’m hoping by early summer that project will be complete and I can get some things planted in those areas, too.

Whatever we all had at the end of January has lingered with us the entire month of February. I tend to think it may have been RSV. We are coughing still, hacking up phlegm, and blowing our noses. I’m pretty sure I was made of equal parts Robitussin and Mucinex last week. So, that has left us laying low most weekends and not even leaving the house to do any hiking despite our desires to get out and see some early spring ephemerals. I’m hoping we’ll manage to get over whatever this is before the trees let loose their pollen in mid-March and that we can get our spring break trip in without any of us toting around Kleenexes constantly.

But for now, I am searching for more signs of spring.

3 Comments

  • shoreacres

    Well, I’m sure that on top of everything else, we have some early pollen — or something — being blown in on the winds. I was out and about Sunday, and in the middle of Brazoria I started sneezing. I’ve been intermittently sneezing ever since, and I’m pretty sure it’s allergies. Trees? Seems early. Grasses, likewise. Mold? Who knows. The Houston site lists tree pollen as medium — cedar and elm — so I guess it’s time for me to get out this weekend if I want to find some blooms on the elm trees!

  • Judy Bass

    You are ahead of me. I haven’t started to clean up all my frozen plants. We may or may not get really cold this weekend and hopefully, it will be the last of the cold weather.

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