It's April!

What a beautiful afternoon! It's in the high 60s and right now it is sunny. The forecast calls for heavy rains this evening though.

The early bulbs are in bloom. The crocuses look especially pretty and the minature daffodils (Tete-a-Tete) in the back yard bed are starting to flower. This picture was taken of the front door where there are a variety of small bulbs. Soon the tulips will be blooming and they are very beautiful.

I started to take some pictures of the Tete-a-Tete daffodils when this butterfly landed right in front of me. I chased it around the yard trying to get a close up. It finally stayed in one spot long enough so that I could get a decent photograph. I really feel as if it is spring now.

Yesterday evening, Ken and I went out and did some work on the yard. I cleaned out the side bed in the front yard. I dug up the stray grape hyacinths. Even though I thought that I had eradicated all of them last year after they bloomed, I pulled at least twenty to thirty bulbs out. Usually it is against my nature to do so, but I felt as if they were detracting from the bed. I did have a suprise though. A small pansy has sprouted in one of the pots. Now I know that I can harden off the pansies that I am growing. I'll plant them outside in a week or so if the weather remains nice.

Ken has dug over the two vegetable gardens on the side of the house. This morning he dug in leaves and compost to the one closest to the front yard and then covered it with landscape fabric. He plans on doing the same to the other two vegetable plots that we have. That will give the worms a few months to start turning the leaves into worm droppings.

Several years ago, I read an article in the Michigan Gardener about a man who had been vegetable gardening for decades. He stated that he had no problem growing the same vegetables in the same plots year after year as long as he added a lot of compost to the beds. This has also been our experience. We grow many hot pepper and tomato plants and don't have the room to do rotation. By using this method, I haven't had any problems with diseases or pests.

I also started to clean out one of the beds in the back. Many of the perennials were popping up and the leaves and other debris were starting to smother them. Also, I needed to dig up a flowering plant that I bought at English Gardens two years ago. (The name escapes me.) Last spring, I noticed that it was invasive and I should have dug it out then. But I wanted to wait one more season to see what it would do. It bloomed in the late fall but I was not impressed by the pink flowers or the leaf structure. I have it in another bed and want to get rid of the rest of it this weekend if the weather permits.