It’s been two weeks since our big (and I hope final) snow dump and I’m happy to announce most of it has melted away.
The front street border on the verge of spring.
Fortunately other than a few snowdrops and winter aconites, most of the plants were still safely underground when the snow fell. Now if I can just get a nice mulch of chopped leaves down this bed shouldn’t need much attention until May… I hope. One thing which worries me are the large deer tracks and munched tulip sprouts I found Sunday morning. Deer are a new thing here and don’t suspect they’ll move on. Needless to say I’m not excited.
Always a week or two ahead, the bed along the front porch got some attention Sunday afternoon as I removed the last of the snow so I could trim the hellebores of winter damaged leaves and freeze damaged flowers.
It’s that anxious time of year when the gardener is trapped between not being able to do anything and worrying about doing too much too early. I usually opt for doing too much… although it never seems enough 🙂
And so the season begins. This year I’ll try to keep up with this front street view each (or nearly each) Tuesday and join up with Cathy of Words and Herbs as she tracks her own Tuesday views throughout the year. Think about joining in, it’s still a few weeks until the view gets interesting but it’ll be on us before we know it!
sorta like suburbia 
Will look forward with anticipation to your Tuesday views.
Thanks John!
Hard to believe it will be so full later in the season. It’s good to start now so we can see all the changes.
We have to make up for our short season somehow. Maybe the exuberant growth is a consolation prize… but more likely it’s my own compulsion to grow extremely vigorous growers 🙂
The snow might have gone but it still looks pretty wintery to me, I hope you get some warm weather soon.
It looks wintery but it’s greening up fast. In a few more days we’ll have daffodils, hyacinths and corydalis, but I do prefer a more gradual warm-up. When it flies by so quickly I feel like I’m not enjoying it as much as I could.
I know that itchy feeling!
I hope the deer don’t discover your buffet. I’m told Irish Spring soap in net bags helps deter them. Ugly, though. I also have tied nylon fishing line to stakes about 3-4′ off the ground around browsed areas (other than the bamboo stakes, you can’t see it) and amazingly, this stops them as they feel the line and don’t push past it. All bets are off if something is chasing them, however, as they’ll crash through anything to escape.
I like the fishing line idea, it makes sense they wouldn’t like that and it doesn’t sound hard to do when it’s just a patch of tulips here and there. I’m just not going to post anything about the first time I get myself tangled up in the line!
I got some mulch spread yesterday and it felt good. Rain tomorrow but the weekend looks like more gardening time, I hope it’s similar weather for you!
More snow in the forecast tomorrow, but I’m not too worried. The sun is too strong for it to last long. It has been nice the past couple days – loving it. Have fun gardening this weekend. It’s still too early for that here, but the snowdrops fragrance today had me swooning. 🙂
We had enough rain today to bring the backyard back into the quagmire category. My weekend of gardening might not work out as planned!
I haven’t really done much and now we are having nights with temps of 30. Not dreadful but it is keeping me from uncovering very much. Saw deer for the first time ever and am freaked!
30F doesn’t concern me. Even the new growth on more tender perennials seems fine until you start to drop into the 27F range… not that I’m saying we won’t still see that this spring 😦
I’m so sorry to hear about your deer visit. Hopefully the open gate really is the reason they made their way back there. Hopefully.
Deer and then the turkey! You are really expanding your visitor list this spring, I hope no one causes too much trouble.
Apparently if you pee on the flower bed the deer take offence. (It has to be male pee.) Of course the neighbours might also take offence. Please don’t tell them I suggested it..
Now there’s a thought. I might be limited to late-night “rounds” under the cover of darkness, but there are 9 and 10 yr old boys who could probably be drafted into service. I would never confess to encouraging them though, and I surely won’t throw you under the bus either 😉
Oh no, not the giant slugs with legs! So now they want us to wet the bed? What do neighbors yell when they see you urinating on your flower beds? European! It is an exciting time of year in the garden when plants start waking up. Hope your deer find greener pastures somewhere else.
I’ve been called worse 😉
I do hope the deer move on. I’m going to make sure the kids accidentally let the neighborhood dogs out, maybe that will help, and I’ll be sure to keep an eye on plants which I’m particularly proud of. I’m sure just like rabbits deer know exactly which plants you love the most so I’ll have to set up some kind of protection for them.
I too hope we are out of the wintertime woods. That last snowdump was a pretty cruel joke after those balmy days! Deer are a new thing in the neighborhood? Do you know where they are “commuting from”? (giant slugs with legs = love that description) I have not been so unfortunate as to have to deal with any destructive furred wildlife larger than rabbits and rodents. Probably because the deer would have to negotiate too much vehicular traffic?
Deer are hit or miss here. There are still plenty of active hunters around, so fortunately we don’t get the large gangs of tame deer roaming the ‘hood, but it does seem like the construction of our neighboring industrial park (or deer meadow as I like to think of it) has helped their numbers grow.
We started getting groundhogs then as well. Those are no pleasure either…
Hi Frank, I’m a bit behind as I had a bad cold all of last week. But hope to get my Tuesday view posted at last next week. We’ve had some wonderful weather and it is getting some sun now. Look forward to following your street border this year!
You think you’re behind, I’m nearly three weeks late in responding to this comment! Fortunately it’s because of the usual spring rush and not a cold 🙂
I’m glad to be back for another year, it will be a great season I’m sure!
Glad the snow moved on so you can enjoy seeing all those early, eager flowers perking up. Have fun!
Funny how the snow already seems just a memory.
Very distressing about the deer. They are worse than rabbits,
The deer have not yet returned, so my fingers are crossed.
Without deer to complain about I’m sure something else will come. The rabbits look extremely healthy this spring, I’m sure they are already busy doing what rabbits do….
When it’s this time of year you just want to get outside and garden! The borders look lovely. That is too bad about the deer, as they are such awful pests. (This year they even ate my hellebores!) Here’s hoping that they don’t return!