Saturday, April 10, 2010

Farm and Garden Weekly - week of April 4

The day I wrote the last Farm and Garden Weekly, the temps were in the mid-eighties! Amazingly wonderful day. But it ended by me finding a tick crawling on my hand as we watched The 39 Steps (television version - which was great by the way). Thank goodness it hadn't attached yet. I grabbed it with a kleenex, threw it in the woodstove and burned it. Yuck! One good day and they are already a problem.

We came home from an Easter supper and heard peepers!

If you aren't familiar with this dear sweet sound of spring you may listen here.

The first daffodil has blossomed, about three weeks early.


The lilacs are budded out and are also early this year.


The spiderwort is up. If you are a new reader of my letters, you may enjoy this earlier posting about the proper pronunciation of this wonderful plant. How I love Henry Mitchell!


The monkshood in the corner of the terrace garden popped up this week.


When I was a girl my friend and I used to cross the footbridge near our houses and go to her grandfather's house to get sweet peas. I fell in love with the delicate colors and beautiful fragrance. This morning I ordered my sweet peas from Renee's Garden.

Knee High, "Jack & Jill" new for 2010
Blooming in dainty salmon-rose and soft mid-blue, our perfumed duet grows just 3 feet tall. These nostalgic and charming flowers bloom early offering heat tolerance and strong garden performance.



Heirloom, "Painted Lady"
The first named sweet pea cultivar, dating from 1737. Painted Lady is a beautiful rose, pastel pink and cream bicolor that is deliciously scented and heat tolerant. Begins flowering early.



Antique "Cupani's Original"
An especially strong blooming strain of the first cultivated sweet pea. Perfumed, heat-tolerant and beautifully bi-colored in deep maroon-purple and orchid-violet.




Note: Sweet pea pictures from Renee's Garden.


Although last night into this morning we had snow showers, the snow didn't stay on the lawn. For most of the week we've had nice spring rains that smell so very good. It has been cool enough most days to keep the woodstove going, but outside is green, green, green.

16 comments:

  1. The weather has been quite amazing...90 one day and 50 the next. So glad you caught that tick in day...what a bugger.

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  2. You have such beautiful flowers!

    I ♥ sweet peas!

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  3. We had snow in the early morning also, but it has since melted and turned into a glorious day!
    The grass is really becoming green here too and looks so fresh!
    Love your desriptions along with your photos and...
    love those adorable watercolour prints to the side of your plant descriptions.
    You are so creative!
    Thanks for sharing.
    Joanne

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  4. Hi Nan! It was chilly here in Charlotte this a.m. but it turned out to be a beautiful beautiful day! Have a good one!

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  5. Isn't that early spring green just the most beautiful of greens. Your garden is awakening. The sound of the peepers always says spring is here to me.

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  6. Hey Nan! We got all four seasons this week, didn't we. I enjoyed your springtime update but you left out any discussion of dead lady bug (or whatever they area) clean up. How are you doing on that score? It was a like a lady bug death camp on the windowsills these last few weeks at our place. Seems to be slowing down now. Happy Spring.

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  7. It sure has been variable, Book Psmith. Haven't seen any ticks since, but I'm sure we will. :<(

    Erin, me too!!

    Thank you, Joanne! I added a note saying those drawings are from the Renee's Garden website! :<) I can't draw anything.

    Sherri, ah spring!

    Lisa, I so love the sound. And you're right about the green. It makes my eyes feel good. :<)

    KSV, I vacuum them every single day. On the warm days there are hundreds; on the cool, cloudy days not so many but still enough to vacuum. I wish mine were dead. I hate them.

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  8. I loved the peepers sound!! Everything is starting to turn green here too! I love spring!

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  9. I am loving your Farm and Garden Weekly Nan and seeing how your seasons unfold. You have amazing contrasts between them and such a long cold snowy winter.I don't know how I would cope with that! By contrast we have a long hot humid summer, this last one being particularly bad as it continues on into what is supposed to be our autumn when it cools down a little and is usually our nicest time of year.This is when we put the majority of our vegetable garden in.
    Are your ticks poisonous? They sound nasty.

    Patricia in Australia

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  10. It was 82 here yesterday! I love this time of year so much. The lilacs are budding, the daffs are still gorgeous (I cut some and brought them inside), the lawn is green and lush, and the star magnolia tree/bush is in full bloom. Forsythia is still going, too. Lots of stuff coming up. My bleeding heart looks wonderful. Oh, how I love that plant. I need to put more in.

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  11. Oh, and YUCK about that tick!! Thanks for the reminder to watch for them on Annie-Dog!

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  12. It truly is a season of wonder, Staci!

    Patricia, I don't mind the winter, really! I mind the heat a lot more. :<) These ticks aren't poisonous, though there are ticks which cause Lyme disease, a terrible disease with many manifestations. Have you read Bill Bryson's book about Australia? Very funny, and scary about all the poisonous things that reside there. :<)

    Les, I liked reading about what is blooming there - you are quite a bit ahead of us, but I am very patient with the spring. Each day brings a new glory!

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  13. I like the drawings of the sweet peas. I hope you'll share pictures of them as they grow. They all sound lovely.

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  14. No I haven't read Bill Bryson's book on Australia as I tend to like reading about other countries.I should check it out.
    Yes,we have a few poisonous nasties in Aus.We are not bothered by too much around here but do have a huge amount of mosquitoes which can carry some worrying diseases and sand flies can be irritating during the summer.

    Patricia

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  15. What a lovely post. It sounds very tranquil and peaceful and I like your pictures of the spring beginnings.

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  16. Margot, I'm sure I will!

    Patricia, I'd be very interested to hear a 'native's' take on his descriptions. I still remember a huge spider web in a tree on a residential street. And the sharks, and his fact which went something like this: of the ten most poisonous things in the world, nine are in Australia.

    Mystica, thank you.There is peacefulness which I love.

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