Reporting on Mom Nature

March came in like a lamb this year. Every day since March 1 has been lovely.
It especially seems like Spring is awakening because of the "simultaneous contrast" of the extreme winter of February!
(I just had to use that expression I picked up on Wednesday at the Flint Institute of Arts "movies at noon". This week talked about the later Impressionists and their struggle to eliminate line, and an exploration of color mapping, but that's another blog.)

Finally, saw a robin on Thursday. I've been outdoors every day since March 1st looking, waiting. Ever since that sighting, which is not really rare seeing as how there are "rogue robins" now who overwinter in Michigan, but for me it was my first robin of the spring - ever since that sighting, the bird chorus is singing whenever I open the door.

In the backyard Snowdrops are blooming. The honey bees are interested - amazing that there is enough to life in the world to bring the bees out, before the crocuses have even broken the surface of the soil. The pussy willows have broken bud - but barely, there is no pollen going on yet.

Yesterday I found honey bees entering a hole at the bottom of my compost bucket.

There was an (unusual for us) east wind blowing yesterday - and was it warm! Besides the honey bees, it brought life to the streets: teenagers- walking, hangin' out, skateboarding, pumping the bass and driving with the windows down - signs of spring.

Wear A Leek for Saint Dave Today

Or a daffodil! Here's a photo of the first garden stepping stone I ever made - it's seen the passing of many winters and I keep it in a spot where the snow melts earlier. Signs of spring are beginning to occur - the snowdrops and some early winter aconites are forming flowers, though they haven't opened yet, and the primroses and seed packets have arrived at Meijers, to bring home with the groceries.



March 1, Wear a Daffodil or Leek for St. David of Wales
From Wikipedia.com:
"Saint David's Day . . . is the feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, and falls on March 1 each year. The date . . . was chosen in remembrance of the death of Saint David on that day in 589, and has been celebrated . . . since then. The date was declared a national day of celebration . . . in the 18th century.
"On this day many Welsh people wear one or both of the national emblems of Wales on their lapel to celebrate: the daffodil (a generic Welsh symbol . . .) or the leek (Saint David's personal symbol). The association between leeks and daffodils is strengthened by the fact that they have similar names in Welsh, cenin (leek) and cenin Bedr (daffodil, literally "Peter's leek").
"In south Wales males usually wear leeks while young girls wear daffodils; in the north the daffodil predominates."

GTS #8 browns and greens

Green Thumb Sunday

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Gardeners, Plant and Nature Lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Our landscape is tinted dead leaf brown and winter tired evergreen shades. Everything color coordinates with the frozen soil and dead grass. But those hopeful snowdrops... so worth planting in the fall, like leaving a sign, "it will happen again" for those who come behind, or as a reminder to my future self to recall, recall spring.

Happy Sad

Happy - Spring is coming.
Sad - It snowed this morning.
Happy - The snow is disappearing.
Sad - But Spring isn't here until you can smell the worms.
Happy - I saw my friend Sharron today at the afternoon movie at the Flint Institute of Arts. The movies are about women artists this month, and today's offering was a 1974 documentary by Amalie R. Rothschild about her grandmother, mother and herself.
Sad - We (Sharron and I) have very similar stories involving our 'life with grown children'. She is so much wiser than I.
Happy - I returned her books and lent her my extra copy of Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible. It's good to have friends who read serious literature and like serious film. And who have time to share them with me.
Sad - It is sooo grey outdoors today.
Happy - When I got home I found my harbinger of Spring in the backyard, the snowdrops, melting themselves a nice roomy spot, and petalling up for promised bloom.
Sad- Spring is coming. Will I be up for another year of gardening?
Happy - Spring is coming. The snowdrops are back.

Wednesday already! I'm behind from Springing ahead.

The class is going well, but I hate to tell you how small it is! Well, I always say I hate speaking to large groups. Crikey.
Anyway, what is it doing, being Wednesday already? Time flies. Yesterday was balmy enough to keep the door open all afternoon to hear the birds cheering. FRESH AIR!
And only two days before snowdrifts were covering all of anything green.

Flowers blooming on Tuesday March 13, 2007:
Species crocus, purple, they've reseeded around the yard lately. I appreciate how crocuses draw the bees so early in the year. Life. Yes.

Snowdrops,too. Notice how the amateur cameraperson neglects to spruce up the subject. Is that a stick laying across that flower?

Cyclamen coum:
My cameraship is shakey, sorry, but it is what it is. I had to stick the camera under the leaves of the epimedium that is threatening to beat up the tiny cyclamen. I love it when the little fellow blooms, tiny, screaming MAGENTA.

No sign of the winter aconites yet. They surprise me every time. Can't wait.

Peter Rabbit has been hanging around leaving fertilizer. I wonder if he was the culprit that left that stem of snowdrop there. Throwing down the gauntlet already?

More views of the Extension Backyard Herb Garden...

In these shots you can see the pamphlet box that holds folded-page handouts that explain the compost area, and some of the remaining compost bins. The site was originally meant to showcase various methods for backyard gardeners to compost. The herb garden was just planned for a pretty backdrop for the compost demo area. Little did they know...
It's hard to get people around here interested in compost (what a shame!) and the individual on the paid staff who was gung-ho about teaching composting has moved on. But the herbs are still here, and some of us hardy old volunteers.
Most of the finicky, short lived perennial or borderline hardy plants have disappeared over the years. The list of remaining plants is about a third of the original list. Some amount of signage from disappeared plants is or are sitting on a shelf. And the plants that were hardy, agressive or 'happy to be here' have grown with very little encouragement into each other and will need to be divided as we go. Lots to do!

Hope we have a gardening-friendly year. I understand it's an El Nino cycle. I'm not a hothouse violet, but I appreciate enjoyable weather for my gardening time. After all, gardening is my avocation, not my vocation.

Still a blanket of snow covers the ground. I've always grown snowdrops and winter aconite, and in the past few years planted some Cyclamen coum (the zone 5 hardy cyclamen that blooms when the snowdrifts melt) and Hellebores (believe it or not, before I heard Barry Glick speaking at a trade show in Lansing.) I have flowers blooming outdoors when many Michiganders are whining about their lack of garden flowers. But this year the snow has not had a chance to melt off the beds where my little gems are waiting. Patience!

There IS a little chervil still green and alive up near the house in the gravel under the overhang on the south-east side. I saw a big jack rabbit sitting there when it was even too cold for the cats to run out and back indoors on below zero morning a few weeks back. The world is never without some kind of life waiting to be discovered.
Weather this weekend, after all the awful cold we've had in the past two months, is expected to be in the 40's... I believe we'll be thawing, hoo-ray!