In some ways, this is the worst time of the year for me. There’s lots of little green bits – lots of promise – but the waiting is KILLING ME!!! It will probably be at least another couple weeks before anything new starts to bloom.

The bees must be feeling the same way. There’s not a lot out there for them right now, so my Winter Aconite has been very popular!!!!

As is the pink (now grey) pussywillow which is starting to turn to pollen. My three different pussy willows by the shed bloom in succession, which is good for the bees – giving them several weeks of food at the start of spring.

My snow drops are still in bloom, though I only have the three (and Lemmy is doing his best to try and break them as he bounds through the catio with no respect for anything in his way)

But I found this little pack in the front lawn! Now I definitely did NOT plant them there. And I don’t recall seeing them there last year (though it’s possible I just missed them – they are quite small). I’m debating on digging them up or leaving them in the lawn. They will be done well before I have to mow, so they won’t get hurt if I leave them there.

Elsewhere, there are signs of life everywhere. Left are my lupins – I love their starry little leaves – especially when they are just getting started. And right is one of the many lilies I planted in the fall. And I have more to plant this spring! It’s going to be lily-mania here!

And you may recall that last fall, I planted some bulbs in the white porch boxes. Well last week, I cleared out the willow and pine branches I had in there for winter…

They’d sprouted, but they were a long way off from providing any blooms- and the box needed something now!!!! So I grabbed some potted & forced bulbs at the grocery store.

Hyacinths and tulips. And I picked out the ones that hadn’t bloomed yet. For $20, I was able to get enough to fill the boxes

Now… this definitely is an experiment – because we are still getting below freezing nights, and these are greenhouse grown. They are used to warmer temps. But they’ve been in there for over a week now, and they seem to be doing ok – nothing has wilted at least!

They probably still won’t bloom fully for another week or two – but at least there’s some green in the boxes. And the bulbs that were already sprouting in there will come up in between and provide some colour after these ones start to fade!

In seed news…

All my seeds are looking good… with the exception of the squash. They were older seeds though, so maybe they’ve gone bad. I’ll give it another week and decided

And check out that broccoli!!! It’s doing AMAZING. I’ve never grown broccoli, even though it’s one of my favourite vegetables. I’m very excited.

Next weekend is Easter, and I have an extra long weekend with both Friday and Monday off. I’m hoping to get a start on laying out the veg garden outside. I won’t be planting anything out there for several weeks yet, but I have a lot of landscaping to do anyway. Hopefully the weather cooperates – I don’t mind it being a bit chilly, but I need it dry!