We grill all winter. It's just a few steps to the gas grill on our deck so my husband shovels a little path and we carry on. Although sometimes it's a little trickier with oversized icicles and mammoth drifts that press against the windows.
I mention this because our gas grill then also functions as our snow gauge. After a week with weak sunshine and no flakes, once again the grill wears a jaunty cap of fluffy frozen stuff. About 4 inches to the naked eyeball. I find these March snows particularly demoralizing.
My butterfly garden/courtyard this past week The Garden Buzz
While all the garden bloggers to the south of me, and that would be a large majority, are yammering on about their spring flowers and green shoots, I am left living in a snow globe. So the only thing green here is me. I am in an abysmal funk of zone-envy.
I'll be leaving for Savannah soon to visit my daughter for spring break. That's all that's keeping me going right now, in a horticultural sense. Soon I'll be smelling moist earth and soft flower scents, drinking sweet tea and eating familiar food.
But for right now I can only dream. Right now I'm thinking ...
- I need to plant more ephemerals; those first flowers of spring, many of them natives, that come very early and leave quickly, like bloodroot, trout lily, Dutchman's breeches, blue bells, hepatica, etc
- I'm starting seeds under lights this year for the first time in awhile, since leaving my light system and my greenhouse when I moved. But I'll have to wait until I get back, can't trust anyone else to water them. Fortunately, our late spring will allow for this. Of course I'll still be direct-sowing many too.
- I have a whole new front yard to design thanks (?) to the autumn storm that took down my pines. I am thinking more edibles, layered landscapes, permaculture, small conifers: can I combine all of these concepts?
So you can see I'm not without springy thoughts. But with one of the snowiest winters in Minnesota history I am left at the mercy of the weather. It may be meteorological spring, it may be Target spring (that's when the patio furniture goes out), but outside remains a winter wonderland. I just hope it all melts by May.
I am snow tired.
