Starting seeds

Yesterday, Emma and I put seeds in 15 mini-greenhouses (yogurt containers with drainage holes on top and bottom, and filled with seed starter soil).

This activity should have been done weeks ago, but darned if I could convince myself to get out there in the cold and snow to do it. Better late than never? We'll see what happens.

Emma has started a journal to track what happens with our seeds.

Here is what is in which pot:
1) Pepper 'Shishito' (Emma)
2) and 12) Zinnia 'Benary's Giant Carmine' (Emma)
3) and 13) Zinnia 'Benary's Giant Lilac' (Emma)
4) and 14) Zinnia 'Raspberry Limeade' (Emma)
5) and 15) Zinnia 'Purple Prince' (Emma)
6) Cornflower 'Classic Romantic' (Emma)
7) Larkspur 'Giant Imperial' (Jennie)
8) Sweet Pea 'April in Paris' (Jennie)
9) Allium obliquum (Jennie)
10) Gypsophila repens rosea (creeping baby's breath) (Jennie)
11) Digitalis lutea (small yellow foxglove)

Garden happenings

At the risk of jinxing it, I think we may finally be out of the woods with respect to winter. Yesterday a friend forwarded a forecast with a snowflake in it, and I threatened riots and rampaging. But I feel pretty sure we'll be spared (both snow and riots/rampages).

Plant life is soldiering on, after being buried in snow for a while.

March 20: the first daffodil was poised to bloom!

March 25: it bloomed. And it was lonely.

March 28: crocuses in front yard continue to delight.

March 28

March 28: see the three poppies coming up in the middle of the shot! They look like they might be spreading a little, too. And then there is a daffodil, and salvia in the foreground.

Mar. 28. There is a crocus blooming in the foreground, but this picture is of the bewildered perennial tulips emerging when the snow pile receded. No sign of any previous years' tulips.

March 30: The allium plant in the back plot, which was new last year, has two rather than one shoot this year!

March 30. I cleared a thick mat of wet leaves off the back plot and most everything is looking alive but beleaguered.

March 30: The daffodils on the left, at the back of the property, had been buried under leaves and are all stunted and yellowish! It will be interesting to see whether they make a good recovery.

Just a few feet to the right of the daffodils above, however, these ones are doing splendidly.

Tufted Titmouse

Blurry (are there any other kind?) photos of a pair of tufted titmouses in the Japanese maple.

Second life for fallen magnolia branches

A few days after the storm, I brought in some branches from the huge magnolia limbs that had fallen onto our driveway after the storm. And they bloomed! It took about 10 days for them to reach their peak.

Above and below: March 15

Above and below: March 20

March 21

Nibblers

Those naughty deer. They stopped to munch nonchalantly on my bird bush on their way up the hill yesterday. This is my photographic evidence of why that bush looks so scraggly.

Crushed

A week ago, I was returning from a vacation at a heavenly Caribbean resort. We missed a windy storm here in NJ, and were feeling smug. And then Wednesday came.

A foot of soggy, persistent snow dropped on us. Everywhere you look around my community, there are trees broken and uprooted from the weight of the snow. We were lucky not to be among the many people who lost power (for days, sometimes). Our beloved magnolia split, though fortunately it didn't fall on our garage. I watched my rhododendrons outside the window with great anxiety, and brushed them off once, then sent Pat out to brush them off again later. It was funny to brush the snow off and watch them spring back to life. That snow was HEAVY.

I have no idea what the effect might be on my garden, which is still buried under snow! Some shrubs may never recover. What of the daffodils and crocuses and tulips poking up leaves? Time will tell, assuming spring ever comes (it is that time of year when I despair).

When the snow started falling, it highlighted the branches that had littered the yard during the storm the previous week. And then it got MUCH worse!

Here we have my poor beleaguered rhododendrons before I brushed them off the first time:

 And then here they are after being brushed off:

The rhododendrons made it, I think. Fingers crossed!

Some more scenes from later that day, and the next morning:

Emma took it upon herself to pile up the fallen branches.

Note the moon! Pretty.

On the left, you can see the fallen magnolia.