If any of you need reminding that spring isn't too far away, all you need to
do is take a walk around your gardens and observe what's happening.

That's exactly what I did today. The day was heavy with cold fogs, misty,
soaking rains, and the only sign that there was a sun was that the sky was a
lighter shade of gray.

Sitting here in the house, looking outside at those reminders in the NSSG
(not so secret gardens) further egged me on. I can see the rain's have
washed all the snow into the ground. Now everything
looks..........interesting. The older Hellebore leaves are almost
flattened, and the newer ones are just now rising out of the center of the
older leaves. I couldn't take it anymore. Besides, Rose won't go out in the
rain to do her business unless she is ready to pop, and she was making
popping sounds behind me.

I had to check the mailbox anyway, so I grabbed my fuzzy hat (no need of my
garden large brim today, the rolled edge of the fuzzy hat would be enough to
keep the moisture off my glasses, I hoped), told Rose "MAILBOX!!" with a
laugh in my voice, and she scrambled on the linolium by the nook door
anxious to go do a mad dash and her stiff happy dawg impersonation. Rose is
getting a bit of a limp in her back leg and I think it's a few things. She's
now 7, over weight and is content to just lie around. So I suspect she has a
bit of ol' Arthur creeping in now. Just like me...........And on wet,
soaked days like today, I find I keep a staff handy so that if I do trudge
down the slope on the western side, it's handy. Nothing like sliding on this
red clay mud we have for soil here on yer butt. Summer is one thing to do
that, but dead winter is not my idea of fun.

Once outside I did what I always do..I questioned why I had taken so long in
going outside. Compared to the previous day's high's in temperatures, it
was almost spring like. There's nothing like single digit temperatures and
high's in the low teens or even 10o to make a high of 47o seem like a nice
day.

I didn't need to encourage Rose, despite the rain, my presence seems to give
her enough of a courage to face those hated rain drops and she was already
off in "her" pasture, smelling the deer, coyote, skunks, possom's, and
whatever else had gone thru during the nights. The walk to the mailbox was
fruitless. No catalogs, no bills, just a sad, empty box, with one little
prickley pad cactus trying to get a toe hold at the base of the new post
next to the paved road that leads to our gravel driveway. The rest have to
be dug up and transplanted underneath the mailbox and now that the soil has
loosened up, it will be easier to do.

Looks like the mailbox needs some repairs, the hinged door has rusted off
the bolt that allows it to open, the mail lady has closed my door with a
rubber band.....ingenuity works....

As I turn to go back, I take a slow motion turn, and stop. Even though
English Mountain is totally obscurred by the fogs, and the sounds are
carrying eerily thru the trees from the interstate a mile or more away, the
smells of the ground are rising up with the fogs that are wisping upwards
like cold, gray fingers. The ground fogs lift up and clasp fingertips with
the other fogs and it's like some ethereal dance of mists and wetness.

The quiet of the ridge is punctured by the insistant power drill sound of
the various woodpeckers trying to get to those succulent cold bugs in the
trees in the surrounding woods. Sad to think that I'd prefer not to hear
that, as it's a sign that they are searching for those insidious pine borer
larval we're having such a bad infestation of here at the moment.

As it's so quiet, and even the birds are mumbling to themselves on this
miserable day, I was most surprised to hear the first strong arrogant notes
of a cardinal warming up his throat for serenades to come. The notes washed
over me and I got all tingly at the sound of him. Tearing myself away from
the non view of the mountains across the pastures and hilltops I am standing
on, and starting to feel that penetrating cold that mists and winter rains
have the ability to inflict, I started back down the gravel driveway,
slowing down to notice the remaining pads of cacti under the Acacia tree of
Miz Mary's and my eyes following outward, the now 11 other children of this
tree that only need to be severed to be successfully transplanted. Tomorrow.
With my Craftsman spade. I WILL have two or three of these incredible
shrubby trees as my own before it's all over.

I'm even thinking that I might see if I can get some regular old hens and
chicks to plant in amongst the prickly pear cactus and under the furry,
thorned pink locust branches. As hot as that spot gets during the seasons,
they would probably thrive and make me most proud.

Rose has gone deep into the pasture, way past our back fence property line,
but the pasture is deep and at one point, there is a wooded, scrubby spot
where they tried to put a pond in and didn't do it right. When you walk
down to that spot, it's really a neat hidden area. The cedar trees and other
weed trees have encircled the depression, that never was allowed to be
sealed to work, so it never held water. But I'd love to clean it up and
plant wild things amongst the wildings and in the depression. But it's not
mine and I have more than enough to do on my own almost acre.

Thru the gates that stay open, I have to admit that I am proud at how Squire
and I cleaned up the fencing that runs along the pasture. Of course I know
the honeysuckle is just laughing at us under the soil line. There were two
stumps that were well over 3 inches thick that we weren't able to get out of
the ground. And I know every piece of privet I whacked will thank me come
springtime and give me 20 or 50 sprouts in return for my kindness of
pruning. But for now, the fence row is clean to past my first compost pile.

I can't stand it. So I go thru the opening between the trumpet vine on the
post with the dead lamp that is about 15 above me, thread thru the narrow
pathway between the two raised beds, and go to the tools next to the bird
seed in the 5 gallon plastic buckets near the porch swing. Gathered up but
not put away, as I always seem to need them no matter the time of year or
dead of winter, I am almost ready to make a tool box that is off the deck
for my rakes, shovels and other necessaries of life on the slope.

I am a woman possessed. I am curious as to wheather or not I can get the
spade into the soil near the fence by the dead mimosa where it's pristine
clean. The garden mind is an amazing thing. It's really quietly plotting
and planning when we least suspect it. In no time I was over by the fence,
admiring the clean, bare and raked area that is at least three foot wide
running along the fence, and I put the point of my spade against the red
soil, put my foot on the lip, and jump on it, expecting resistance.

Now remember, we had sub zero temperatures a few times, snow cover for two
weeks running, high's barely over 15 and now here it is only 42o and it's
been raining all night and day on and off with constant heavy soaking fog.
It was an experience I'd not had in a long time. The blade of the shovel
went in clean, and to the hilt immediately causing me to almost fall on my
face. I recovered my composure, looked for Rose but she was still
unaccounted for, lost in her own doggie world of smells and such, and I
braced myself as I levered the long handle downward. I tend to like the
longer handled tools despite that I am short. they work for me. I felt
resistance. Ahhhh, something I am used to, and I started to put my back
into it, and decided not to, remembering that I almost ate clay soil a few
minutes earlier, and torqued it just a little downwards and heard a dull
thunk under the soil before the whole clump rose as the shovel lifted it up.

It was beautiful. The thunk I'd heard was a long dead mimosa root that had
no resistance to my shovel, and the soil was soft and pliable and loose like
the soils I long for from my home in years past. Before I knew it, I had a
$10 hole dug, and had walked like some possessed woman, and had plunged my
shovel into the black and red soil around the Wine and Roses weigelia I'd
planted last fall. There was no resistance. there was no time for the bush
to make roots. It came up clean. A three gallon rootball and soil came up
in one smooth motion, and I carefully lifted it and balanced the weight by
grasping the metal handle and slowly walking to the hole. It was a perfect
fit. A bit of tamping around the base, pull the clay soil around the black
I'd tucked in around the bush last fall, and the little thing looked happier
there to me than crammed so close to the fig bed.

As I straightened up, the kink in my back reminding me it was still cold and
wet outside, I noticed in the "Colorado" box a huge clump of the greenish
white mottled leaves of my arum lilies. They broke ground back in October,
but they're even more beautiful now, and not the least bit affected by the
snows. And as I look at the leaves closer, I notice tiny, grass like sprays
of leaves in tufts scattered through out the new extension. The crocuses
are up!! I also see the pointy noses of some narcissus in wads here and
there amist the debris I always leave in the beds until spring for the birds
and critters.

I feel so good about the promise of crocus, I glance over to the fig bed
where there are more arum lily leaves, not as big of a clump but noticable,
and am about to look at the branches of the lime spirea I put on the corner
of the box, when I see something unmistakeable. I bend closer, and
carefully, gently brush my finger and see there was a brave crocus had dared
to open up sometime during the snows and cold and I had missed it, because
the spent petals were folded slightly and I could barely see the speckled
color on the pale yellow of the flower as it bent head down towards the
soil. To say my heart almost burst with happiness, is a good description.

The remainder of the moments I stayed outside was spent putting the spade
back with the rest of the tools, noticing there are still too many wads of
vinca vines in the beds and I need to get in there and pull them up now
while the soil is loose and friable and it can recover from my standing on
it to get to them. I can plant the pieces down near the woods. I might
regret that later on. The spirea indeed had tight little nubbins all along
the thin branches but I had never noticed it before, the stems and twigs of
the spirea were blushed reddish.,

That triggered another thought in my head, so I walked down the dog run to
the east side of the house, around the salix, and glory bower (wow, the
salix has buds all over it!) noticing the Cornelian Cherry tree's hundred's
of buds are tightened up and not opening up as they did this time last year.
Thank goodness for garden journals. This time last year the tree had
decided it was spring and had opened up all its blossoms, causing me great
distress. And then we got that cold snap.......

Around the corner and into the tiny sloping space, I go to where I am driven
to go. Tucked next to the hellebore is two small but satisfying red twig
dogwoods. Doing what they do in the winter. I might not have too many twigs
rising up yet, but what I do have are bloody and beautiful. Come springtime
I will cut half of those to the ground in hopes to double my stems for the
next winter.

Wet sodden leaves on my pink buddelia that is struggling in the darkest
corner of the nook garden tells me it might have to be lifted and moved
somewhere else. And I bet the daylilies will have to be moved as well, it's
more a place for semi shade than anything else.

Now I'm starting to get cold to the bone, and the hat I'm wearing is
dripping rain onto my glasses, so it's time to come in and get warm. Rose
has outsmarted me. She's standing up on the small deck waiting for me. As I
go inside and wash my hands, the hybrid clyclamen's I have in the bathroom
satisfy my desire for colors for now, but already I am thinking of watching
for the pale milky blue crocus out front by the cedar stump I sat in the
front bed. Spring can't be too far away. Now if only I could find someone
who had a witch hazel for sale..................tomorrow I will water all
the cacti and remaining tropicals in the house for another breath of moist
soil.

thanks for the ramble time. there will much much more in weeks to come.

madgardener up on the ridge, back in fairy holler, overlooking English
Mountain in Eastern Tennessee zone 6b

And one of the best things is 45 more minutes
of daylight since Jan 1.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoopeee
Emilie

In article , "madgard"
writes:

I am a woman possessed. I am curious as to wheather or not I can get the
spade into the soil near the fence by the dead mimosa where it's pristine
clean. The garden mind is an amazing thing. It's really quietly plotting
and planning when we least suspect it. In no time I was over by the fence,
admiring the clean, bare and raked area that is at least three foot wide
running along the fence, and I put the point of my spade against the red
soil, put my foot on the lip, and jump on it, expecting resistance.


There is something that just soothes my soul when I can dig.
That's why I love being in a place where the ground never freezes.
I can go out and play in the dirt when I feel the urge. When we moved
to Ohio, that was perhaps the worst thing: not being able to get my hands
in the dirt in winter. The sound of a shovel going 'clunk' on the frozen earth
just was not satisfying!! I couldn't dig; nor even SEE the dirt. And no,
shoveling snow was NOT the same thing.
Yes, this is the perfect time for removing things, privet yearlings pull right
up, and perfect for moving plants around to new homes.

Emilie
going to pack a lunch and go play in the snow instead of dirt, today

ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!
"MLEBLANCA" wrote in message
...

And one of the best things is 45 more minutes
of daylight since Jan 1.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoopeee
Emilie

"MLEBLANCA" wrote in message
...


In article
, "madgard"

writes

I am a woman possessed. I am curious as to wheather or not I can get the
spade into the soil near the fence by the dead mimosa where it's pristine
clean. The garden mind is an amazing thing. It's really quietly plotting and
planning when we least suspect it. In no time I was over by the fence,
admiring the clean, bare and raked area that is at least three foot wide
running along the fence, and I put the point of my spade against the red
soil, put my foot on the lip, and jump on it, expecting resistance.



There is something that just soothes my soul when I can dig.

I feel exactly the same way Emilie. This is why I posted this despite that
I'd already posted something earlier. Despite that my back was warning me
something is seriously wrong (I can only hope it's just sleeping horribly
wrong and the spine is shreiking) yesterday and I'm worse today I was
determined to try out the soil yesterday. Today it's much colder, it's still
gray, but I am smug that I moved the weigelia at a time when it was truely
dormant, and once true spring gets here, it will take off and settle itself
next to the dead mimosa just about 3 foot from the oak leaf hydrangea's. (I
planted two of them together to get a more fuller shrub effect, as they were
just $3.95 each for 3 gallon plants, I should have gotten all five they had.
The nursery closed shortly afterwards

That's why I love being in a place where the ground never freezes.

it seldom does around here anymore. But we need a little freeze to kill off
a few of the hateful bugs that make our lives so miserable. ticks, fleas,
mosquito's, they said the sub-zero temperatures didn't hold long enough to
make any difference with the pine borer beetles and their larval in the pine
trees around here, which means had we had this Canadian low front to hold
another week or two, it might have saved thousands of trees that are
infested with the beetles and their young. That's what the woodpeckers are
going after, by the way.

I can go out and play in the dirt when I feel the urge. When we moved to
Ohio, that was perhaps the worst thing: not being able to get my hands in
the dirt in winter. The sound of a shovel going 'clunk' on the frozen earth
just was not satisfying!! I couldn't dig; nor even SEE the dirt. And no,
shoveling snow was NOT the same thing.



that's true. But I have enough cacti, succulents and a few tropical plants
to satisfy my need to feel the soil in my fingers, and repot or bump up or
even top dress. I have probably three plants now that desperately need just
to have new soil in their pots. First I have to get the soil and lay out
the plastic coated table cloth on the floor before I do this, but when I am
done, the plants will be thrilled and start showing their appreciation by
more growth, and my fingers will be significantly dirtier~g

Yes, this is the perfect time for removing things, privet yearlings pull
right up, and perfect for moving plants around to new homes.

I agree with you there on those hateful little privet yearlings. I have
been pulling them and their older siblings up by their roots lately when I
come across them. I even managed to pull out three foot saplings of the
things. NOthing like grabbing hold of what you think is privet and giving a
good soul and back wrenching yank and finding out it's a hackberry tree
sapling and it ain't going nowhere! owie.......but in my carpenter's jeans
side pocket, are my bypass pruners and I just get even and cut the trunk to
the ground. The only tree sapling that doesn't mind being whacked in that
manner and comes back is the black walnut saplings. when I find those and I
can't pull them out, I go get the shovel and pry them up. I have enough of
those hateful things to start a grove and if I don't dig them now, they will
be virtually impossible to lift later. When I am done with cleaning out my
lower woods, there won't be black walnut,young pin oaks, cedar (I will keep
two large ones at the bottom of the lot)privet, blackberry, holly
trees,honeysuckle and poison ivy. There will be only jack pines,the
decently sized oak saplings, the tulip poplar's and those two cedars. I
haven't one decent dogwood, but once I clean and clear all that out which
will take me a couple of years constant attacking to accomplish this, I will
then be able to start buying redbuds, dogwoods, silver bells, and any
understory blooming tree my heart desires. (within a reasonable price of
course) Once I get my understory trees planted, (there will be a few jack
pines topped which grow way too close to the house for comfort) I will start
on the shrubs that will live under those understory trees. I already have
quite a collection, but not nearly enough to spread out down in the north
bottom woods.

These woods get good western exposure, and fair eastern exposure. The only
southern light they get is really filtered thru those jack pines and oaks
and the three decent tulip poplars. My gardening work is literally cut out
for me.

The main chore will be clearing out, cleaning up, pulling up, whacking back,
in some cases I might have to resort to putting something to kill some of
the things that won't go quietly into the night. (the honeysuckle in some
places is thuggish, and the privets will take a herbicide only because I
don't own a tractor that would pull the roots out of the soil which would be
the only way to completely remove them, we're talking privet that is 15 foot
high in some places. To cut the branches back only stimulates them to
produce more limbs. I'd be whacking until judgement day on the blasted
things. Of all the non natives, I despise the privet more than anything,
second is honeysuckle. I adore the scent, but when you're trying to claim
some land for other things, it's amazing in it's tenacity.





Emilie going to pack a lunch and go play in the snow instead of dirt, today

you could always slide over here and we can repot some plants, possibly
divide some of the mother in law's and I could share with you........g

I'm rather bowled over by the free hyacinth bulb ("Amsterdam" that
whatstheirname included with my order put out successively, when forced, not
one but two huge stems of loosely carried, hot-pink flowers with a divine
smell--sweet but not over-sweet. One freebie that wasn't just a throwaway
extra.
zemedelec

I noticed that when I leave for work now, it gets lighter and lighter!
Hooray!

loony


"MLEBLANCA" wrote in message
...

And one of the best things is 45 more minutes
of daylight since Jan 1.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoopeee
Emilie

Longer day here is the only thing that makes us thing that winter is not
here to stay forever and ever. Lucky are those who can see the spring
approaching. I cannot see this. How can I? When the ground is full of snow
and it is -26 Centigrade outside. But today it was a beautiful day: cold
but sunny. We did not have much snow or any snowstorm yet but we can still
have a few feet of snow until the end of March. Anyway, it is difficult to
thing about global warming these days.

Françoise.

loonyhiker wrote:

I noticed that when I leave for work now, it gets lighter and lighter!
Hooray!

loony

The days are getting longer and I'm glad. In Houston, we've gained 27
minutes more daylight since Jan 1st.

MLEBLANCA wrote:
=

And one of the best things is 45 more minutes
of daylight since Jan 1.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoopeee
Emilie

-- =

J Kolenovsky, A+, Network +, MCP
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.celestialhabitats.com
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/reference.html

Xref: news7 rec.gardens:207366

Our sunsets are nearly one hour later here in the FAR FAR North, than they
were at their earliest (around Dec. 10- when the sun was setting at 3:55).
Now the sunset is at 4:50 - yippee!. We'll finally catch up to the lucky
southerners on March 23rd.
"J Kolenovsky" wrote in message
...
The days are getting longer and I'm glad. In Houston, we've gained 27
minutes more daylight since Jan 1st.

MLEBLANCA wrote:

And one of the best things is 45 more minutes
of daylight since Jan 1.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoopeee
Emilie

--
J Kolenovsky, A+, Network +, MCP
ô¿ô - http://www.celestialhabitats.com
ô¿ô - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/reference.html

Summer is just around the corner too!!!

So you better get your bikinis ready for some fun in the sun!!!!


gregpresley wrote in message
...
Our sunsets are nearly one hour later here in the FAR FAR North, than they
were at their earliest (around Dec. 10- when the sun was setting at 3:55).
Now the sunset is at 4:50 - yippee!. We'll finally catch up to the lucky
southerners on March 23rd.
"J Kolenovsky" wrote in message
...
The days are getting longer and I'm glad. In Houston, we've gained 27
minutes more daylight since Jan 1st.

MLEBLANCA wrote:

And one of the best things is 45 more minutes
of daylight since Jan 1.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoopeee
Emilie

--
J Kolenovsky, A+, Network +, MCP
ô¿ô - http://www.celestialhabitats.com
ô¿ô - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/reference.html

Lucky are those who can see the spring
approaching. I cannot see this. How can I? W

We're having a spring day, it's in the thirties .lol

Love Caryn
"Come into my garden, my flowers want to meet you!"

The message
from "Cereoid+10" contains these words:

Summer is just around the corner too!!!

So you better get your bikinis ready for some fun in the sun!!!!

Thinks, "I will not form a mental picture of Cereoid in his bikini; I
will not form a mental picture of Cereoid in his bikini: I will
not...damn..."

Janet

despite that they itch me like crazy, I too love hyacinths. madgardener
"Zemedelec" wrote in message
...
I'm rather bowled over by the free hyacinth bulb ("Amsterdam" that
whatstheirname included with my order put out successively, when forced,
not
one but two huge stems of loosely carried, hot-pink flowers with a divine
smell--sweet but not over-sweet. One freebie that wasn't just a throwaway
extra.
zemedelec

Personally, I think even winter is better with some sun shine, deep snow -
no wind - and a bright sun, is gorgeous. Too many gray days and I start
getting a bit crazy. We did make a high of 45 today, but tomorrow it's back
to 21. No way could you get a shovel into the ground. I did get a nice
glass box made tho, lol.

Carlotta
Iowa

"Françoise" wrote in message
...
Longer day here is the only thing that makes us thing that winter is not
here to stay forever and ever. Lucky are those who can see the spring
approaching. I cannot see this. How can I? When the ground is full of snow
and it is -26 Centigrade outside. But today it was a beautiful day: cold
but sunny. We did not have much snow or any snowstorm yet but we can still
have a few feet of snow until the end of March. Anyway, it is difficult to
thing about global warming these days.

Françoise.

loonyhiker wrote:

I noticed that when I leave for work now, it gets lighter and lighter!
Hooray!

loony