An early spring has sprung in Maine

A month has flown by since the last post and I can't blame a lack of interesting news to report on this Garden Blog for the silence. I did travel a lot during March though. I attended the CFA Consumer Assembly in Washington DC, traveled on to Richmond VA to visit the Coplan clan and flew back to Maine only long enough to celebrate St. Patrick's Day at the Wonder Bar in Biddeford before heading on the train to New York for another Brooklyn visit and some enjoyable babysitting duties with Cotton. There was also a day trip to Boston at the end of the Month. But every free moment while in Saco was spent enjoying the wonderful weather here. Snow is a distant memory and even chilly, rainy spring days are not very frequent.

There was another horrible late March rainstorm triggering the biggest garden floods I have experienced though before sunny, warm days took over ever since. The garden ponds created by the nearly five inches of rain brought a pair of ducks to the homestead for four days until the pond disappeared. Cotton, Julian and Roxi were able to make an unexpected Easter weekend visit here and certainly enjoyed the warm, sunny weather and the burst of spring flowers all around the property. Cotton enjoyed an Easter Egg hunt and played for hours in the sandbox. The flower beds have been cleaned of mulch and debris and many perennials are popping forth: peonies, hosta, ferns, hydrangea buds,lilies, lupine, sedum,and bulbs everywhere.

My new garden cart...a freebie along the side of a country road...has new wheels and worked perfectly behind the riding mower for gathering all the debris piles around the yard. The family pet, a rabbit named Ms. Clarence, moved into her summer home in the garage from indoors and has a pleasant visit around the yard thanks to Roxi. The pond had the pump activated and was cleaned of fallen leaves and is ready to gain some water plants. The magnolia tree alongside the driveway is nearly in full bloom.

I am busily splitting and stacking wood since major garden work is still a few weeks away. My goal is to have a couple cords all ready for next winter, covered and seasoning over the summer months. But the seeds of many vegetables and flowers are already started indoors and I am planning my planting locations in anticipation. This has been the nicest late March and early April in my nearly eight years here so I am confident the planting peas, potatoes, and some other early crops are merely days away. The lawn is so green that I may be mowing grass well before the end of the month!

Here's hoping that this surprisingly sunny, warm spring is an indication of a great, long, hot growing season and the best garden year ever. But remember all gardeners and farmers have to always enter the spring season brimming with optimism and I am no exception to that rule.

Enjoy some images that visualize the above words: