April promises us some brighter, warmer days. Daylight Saving Time began on March 14, and spring arrived on March 20. Sunsets have been getting later, as our days are getting longer.
The white Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis), our earliest flowering bulbs, did not disappoint us this year. Taking their place now are the blue Siberian Squills (Scilla siberica).
Over the years, the Scillas have multiplied creating veritable “carpets of blue” in some areas. Their pretty blue flowers can be found in our “so-called” lawn and poking through groupings of Daffodils.
Especially colorful are the Hellebores (Helleborus), commonly called Christmas Roses, although they are not roses at all. In fact, they gifted us with some blooms over this past winter, and even their leaves provided some interest.
Since our town yard-waste collections resumed this week, we did some leaf raking and pruning of dead tops on perennials like the Sedums and Hostas. We’re definitely not “neatniks” when it comes to raking, since many insects over-winter in the leaf litter providing food for our birds in the spring. Interestingly, all of the leaves we’re raking seem to be oak leaves, and we have no oak trees on our property. No big deal!
Our small vegetable garden awaits the sowing/planting of seeds such as lettuces, radishes, cucumbers, green beans and zucchinis. We usually buy a couple of tomato plants from one of our local nurseries. We’ve begun to harvest our perennial chives, and the shoots of the lovage and the rhubarb plants have begun to emerge.
Of course, seemingly thousands of weeds are emerging, too! We’ll discuss this in a future column since we definitely do not use dangerous weed-killers.
According to the National Garden Bureau, hummingbirds are starting their migration to the north. Soon we’ll be getting our hummingbird feeders ready and taking down our birdseed feeder. Will check to make sure the Monarda plants are emerging. The hummers really love them.
Also on our “to-do” list is the planting of containers on our front-steps and front wall, the re-potting of our houseplants, and the trimming of some forsythia branches to place in a vase of water to bloom in our kitchen. Yes, we’ll call them our indoor sunshine.
And, no sunscreen needed!
