Native dogwood in bloom during first week of April.
Petals were drifting on the wind as I walked down the lane this morning.
The first male hummingbirds arrived April 7th; I caught a very fleeting glimpse of a female yesterday.
I've seen only a few bluebirds this year, a few robins, a male goldfinch wearing summer plumage.
Wild turkeys have strolled the edges of the meadow, squirrel families are cavorting in overhead branches and [unwisely] in the grass beneath the black walnut trees.
Woodpeckers are busily drilling in the trees along the ravines.
Clematis 'Samaritan Jo.'
Clematis Dr. Ruppel
Dr. Ruppel is the closet variety I could find locally to replace vintage Nelly Moser which didn't transplant from our first Kentucky property.
Duchess of Edinburgh
This is the most delicate of my clematis varieties, very frost tender and the stems easily broken during pruning or tying in.
The full ruffled blooms make up for the plant's finicky nature.
Clematis Edita is being slowly smothered by her neighbor, 'Samaritan Jo.'
A feeble unnamed clematis succumbed to the late winter ice and snow. I considered buying a new plant, but have decided to move Edita to the vacant spot after blooming.
Delicate but thriving, 'Arabella'.
My favorite, Candida, always rushes into bloom, often having the first buds nipped with frost.
A delightful vintage variety, I've not seen it for sale locally, but apparently available from online sources.
Peonies in bud in the messy rough strip of garden by the lane.
No doubt our much needed rain will finally move in about the time the peonies bloom.
Two varieties of wiry-stemmed perennial pinks grown from seed. I used them to edge the wall of the south-west garden. As a few die out I find others sprung from seed in the grass below or beyond the planted strip.
First flower stalks appearing on foxglove. Note the dryness of the soil.
Achillea/yarrow originally grown from seed, moved to the corner of the greenhouse when two raised beds near the house were dismantled to accommodate the new front porch.
The lean-to greenhouse was a casualty of the garage/shop fire. Strangely these plants were almost untouched. I'm planning to move them to a safe spot before the clean-up effort takes place in that area.
It is a delight to find that seeds of Lauren's Grape poppies landed in nearly every clump of perennials moved from the two raised beds near the porch. Some are nearly ready to bloom, others are tiny emerging plants. Several of the poppies have appeared in my daughter's garden, the seeds lying dormant in a clump of deep pink yarrow she transplanted late last summer.
Billowing clouds moving in from the west at noon, but still no rain.
March and April have typically been chilly wet months here.
Several years ago a hard frost in early May stripped new leaves from the trees and blighted the early garden.
Jim planted potatoes a few days before the fire with the idea of making another planting.
The extra seed potatoes were stored in the greenhouse along with small gardening tools, sprayers and such.
There has been no time during the massive and grimy clean-up to consider more gardening.
I have about two dozen tomato plants started under lights in the basement; those have been transplanted to larger pots and crowded back under the lights, but my usual sowing of flower and veg seeds to be grown on in the greenhouse isn't possible.
I've been poking about in the large planters near the front steps--finding a few more poppy seedlings and a few self-sown pansies. I found a pkt of dwarf nasturtium seeds left from last season and prodded them into the soil of a large, rather battered pot.
Willis-the-cat has been much interested in my efforts; he has always supervised my tasks in the greenhouse, resulting in trays of seedlings barricaded with plastic cutlery and twigs.
Deprived of the greenhouse, it will be interesting to see how he--and I--proceed this spring with gardening.
Clean-up progress.
Jim and the friendly salvage man, D.B. have labored to remove the larger hulks of charred tool chests, tools and equipment, which have been hauled away
Salvage guy didn't show up today as expected, so Jim went to work removing the warped metal siding of the barn.
This is the view from the long north side of the structure.
It is dirty work. My only contribution is laundering grimy clothes.
We completed our inventory of tools and personal property lost, handed it to the insurance agent on Monday.
Now we wait for them to review, process and offer a settlement.
It is part of the insurance scheme that while we pay in for years, usually a claim is hard won.
We have acquired a MF tractor, a 2013 Honda Odyssey, a zero-turn mower, essential tools from Harbor Freight.
Jim has suggested we need an outing to one of the nearby farm supply stores to purchase garden tools.
I'm hoping this summer's garden might be of a more manageable size than previous years. That would be one good result from the unexpected devastation of the fire!
