Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Spring Is In The Air

Renewal
April, when I heard
Your lyrical low word,
And when upon the hawthorn hedge your first white blossoms stirred,

Something strangely came--
Something I cannot name--
And touched my heart, and cleansed my soul with a reviving flame.



When the yellow gleam
Of your hosts that stream--
Jonquil, buttercup, and crocus--made the world a golden dream,



Something, April, said
To my heart that bled--
Bled with old remembrance--
'Lo! the grief-strewn days are fled!



Sursum corda!
Now,
When blooms the apple-bough,
April, of your pity, let your light rain kiss my brow;



Heal me, if you will;
Bathe my heart until
I am one with your first primrose or the shining daffodil.
 
-Charles Hanson Towne

Springtime is a busy time for any gardener. There is much work to be done, and much beauty to be soaked in. I have most assuredly been busy, trying to eek out garden chores between unwieldy hours at work, and you know, personal life. So, I am behind, as usual. But only, of course, by my own self imposed schedule.

I have pruned all the trees in the back that weren't done by my landlord. My plum tree, cedars, birch, lilac, and ridiculous hazelnut. This left me with piles of branches to deal with. Not to mention, I finally talked to my neighbor about cutting back her walnut tree that hangs over my garden and shades half of it. Hubs and I chopped off what we could reach, increasing the amount of sun the garden will get (yay!).

Lots of walnut to chop up.

Who says brush piles can't be fun?

I started cutting up and stacking all that wood, but its a lot. After some research, I decided to do a couple Hugelkultur beds in the garden to use some of it up. If you not familiar with Hugelkulture, you can read about it here, or just google it.

Hugelkulture FTW!

I finally got the chickens fenced in. I let them out to graze, but I have to say, I am really loving not having chicken poo on my patio. They yelled at me for days, but have finally settled down. They are still mad at me though. We have plans to build a coop really soon, then, I will likely get a few more chickens.

These girls are not pleased!

Marla says, "You Madam, are a jerk!"

My starts are just about ready to plant out, and I have quite a few things to direct sow. I have big plans over the next few weeks. Until then, Happy Spring!