her able hands

Goodness, I just put up my winter banner, and already I need to work on something green. The thaw is here, and I hope final, though I know we could still get a dump load of snow straight through till May. That thought nudges the back of my mind but I try to ignore it, especially in light of the 70* evenings, the hawks mating in the sky over our house, the Teenager who spends half the night skateboarding in the cul-de-sac behind us. This is progress. We can make plans.

This is part of the mess in the woods. It’s incredible to me that every effort we make to improve the property just creates a bigger mess that we have so little time to clean up. So far we have two beds made with the chicken tractor, and now the girls are on a new spot to build one more. It’s on my list to call about manure and compost deliveries today. I hope I remember to make the time. I could have peas and other cold weather crops in the ground by Sunday if I manage my days well.

In an ideal world where I didn’t spend 45 hours a week in a cubicle I would be building beautiful paths between the beds with shallow trenches filled with cement and beach stones pressed down into it to form mosaics. But yanno, that’s just not in the cards this year. I just need to focus on getting some food planted and call that good enough for now. Someday, though, that’s the big plan. Get all of the brush and wood cleaned up. The brush into bark mulch, the wood chopped and stacked neatly in the lean-to we’ll build by the new shed barn that we’re ordering. I’ll have lots of shade-loving plants to form low hedge rows around the perimeter of the garden area, and along the paths to form cozy nooks within the woods. I can see it now, but realistically it’s a ten-year plan.

But the girls, so happy in their new spot!

The fun part of this spring is seeing what pops up around the property for the first time. I brought over several plants from the old house and stuck them in bare spots in the perennial bed. It looks like I lost my French Lavender, not surprising after the super dry summer and then the bitter cold. I should have nursed it along more than I did, which was not at all. I dug a hole in June, shoved her in, patted the soil down around her roots walked away. Hello spring and skeletal remains!

The first clump of daffodils opened up, such a striking glow on the brown landscape.

My Thyme seems to have done alright, lots of dead, but some hearty green persists and makes a most wonderful scent when rubbed. Here’s one of the surprises. I stuck Ms. Thyme right on top of tulip bulbs. Whoops!

I also found some chives set back amongst a bunch of bulbs in the treeline behind the swing set and plan to make a light vegetable soup this weekend with chopped chives garnishing each bowl. It’s time for spring tonics and I’ve scoped out dozens of tender, green dandelions.

I need to decide where I want to start my kitchen herb bed. I’m afraid to do anything on the south side by the kitchen door because we eventually plan to add on over the kitchen and across to the garage, make a mud room and office/work space. I’d hate to have to move a thriving garden. So I need to focus on the other side close to the woods, which still gets plenty of sun all season.

Chris had his awakening to the season of outside work the other night as well. He bonded with the new back neighbor by taking turns tossing a steel weight tied to a rope over a very high tree branch. The tree is on our property, but the offending branch is rotten and hangs right over their back yard where their lovely 3 year-old daughter plays every day. It took them about 30 or 40 tries, but eventually they snagged the branch and together, with much groaning and brute-strength, pulled it off the tree.

Chris brought out the chainsaw (grinning ear-to-ear, for this is the way the man likes to garden, with a motorized tool of destruction growling in his hands). He trimmed up the branch and brought over the nicest piece, with such an interesting curl to the wood.

Any suggestions on what I could do with this beautiful hollow log?

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