The rains are coming.
And though it will be welcome for the new additions to the garden, it is not great for the older parts from a n aesthetic perspective, because things are just starting to bloom - like our fantastic pear tree! While it doesn't grow edible pears as they are tiny, for (literally) a few days every year, it is absolutely filled with gorgeous blossoms and in the sun, it is a joy to behold. But if the rains arrive, it destroys them and we miss that little window of beauty until the next year at least. This is our fifth year in the house and we have caught the rain twice already. If we get it again, it will mean that we have missed out more than we have received.
The weather is the weather.
But just in case, I went and took a few pictures from around the garden of the blossoms that are out with the pear about to open, the cherry open, the apple not yet ready, the forget-me-nots sprinkled under the apple trees, peonies on the way, the daffodils from Easter still going strong and of course - the ever-present dandelions, which the bees like.
Today, I started digging in a shallow trench around the house where there is currently grass, so as to build a flowerbed that will be filled with snow-in-summer groundcover. This will run two sides of our house and is about a half meter wide and I am lining it with heat-treated wood. I did the short section of the house today, which is about 9 meters, moving the cut grass to fill a bare patch in another place, and lined it with wood held in place with wooden stakes. I am making the stakes myself with a mitre saw, and it seems to hold. I have done similar with most of the garden beds so far, that have straight lines.
If you are wondering why we are only putting in groundcover in this area, it is because the roof is sloped and the snow in the winter falls down on two sides of the house. This is broken by the bar on the roof, but it is still very heavy and I don't think anything that is too fragile will survive it. Hopefully, the ground cover will, and for the earlier spring, we will drop tulip bulbs in anyway to bring in colour.
While I would like to keep working on it this week, rain or shine, I need to get more wood and potting soil and unfortunately, the brakes on my car have gone and won't go to the service in time. Since we have a million and one things this week spread all over the place, we have borrowed my in-law's car for a few days, but I am not going to use that to pick up wood and soil. It is nice to drive a very comfortable car, but we are only driving it as we need. I say "we" but my wife doesn't want to drive it at all. So, some of the gardening will have to wait.
I can still dig the next side trench though.
Yippee...
And now for some photos of flowers.
See you at the bottom.
That last one is of a pigeon nesting in one of our apple trees. I used a longer lens as I didn't want to disturb her sitting on the eggs. My daughter and I spent an hour watching her build the nest from our loungeroom window, with her birdman pulling twigs from our garden and gently dropping them to her through the branches. My daughter was pretty happy. However, we don't yet have anyone living in the birdhouse we made together, but today as I was working, a little bird came to visit three times over the space of a couple hours, checking the house out and then flying to nearby trees, checking the surroundings for signs of danger. Hopefully they move in!
That would make us all happy.
It is probably a good thing that I can't do too much work over the next few days, because my body is pretty sore in weird places, as it isn't accustomed to getting into the weird positions of gardening, pulling trees, or digging holes.
It will man up in time though.
Taraz
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