Sunday, February 28, 2010

Gardening at Last!

Folks,

Finally I can get out in the garden! Between many snow covered weekends and cleaning up Meg's house to go on the market TOMORROW today will be the first day (well half day) to actually work in the garden.

We dug one giant hellebore, a trillium, and two asters from here place and I hope to plant them today. I need to get some good dirt to add to a new bed I want to build next to the house, that will have to come another day when I can go pick it up with my trailer and unload the trailer as we have not enough parking spots when the trailer is in the way.

March is tomorrow and I have not seen a butterfly yet (in the US) usually by the first of February I see some kind of butterfly. Meg saw a Cabbage White at school yesterday.  Usually by March 15th we see about 10 species of butterflies and 1-2 different dragonflies, doubt that is going to happen this year.

One other note I have a new software to play with! Thayer's "Birds of North America" Gold Edition DVD. I had used Thayer's birding software back around 1995 when it came on floppy discs. These DVDs cover everything you need to know about 957 species of birds found in North America including the calls, range maps and even quizzes. Tried the bird identifier with the Northern Mockingbird, gave it the info and sure enough it pointed to the Northern Mockingbird.

I'll give a more in-dept review later once I dig into what is inside. What I'm most interested in is the my quizzes section where I can create my own butterfly and dragonfly quizzes.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Randy, Moving plants from one garden to another is always something of a chore and actually takes a great deal of time. However, I should be very reluctant personally to abandon trilliums to the fate of any new owner.

I am afraid that I am not very technical so the second part of your posting was slightly lost on me.

Janet, The Queen of Seaford said...

I too am looking forward to getting out into the garden to do some more cleaning up...need to finish some pruning. More of the clean up will have to be after the wet weather, think some of it will be undone with the rains. Need to have some plant growth to hold some of the soil.
Hope Meg's house sells quickly for you all. We put ours on the market in late March/ early April. Just about done painting.

Janet, The Queen of Seaford said...

We have to have a contract by April 31 and close by June 30 for our tax incentive....as an existing home owner ours will be $6500 or some portion there of. For someone to buy ours.... there will be time for it to be listed and have someone be able to take advantage of the tax credit. It is all in the timing isn't it??

D said...

Randy we'll be pulling for you and Meg on getting the house sold. Our trilliums are just about to bloom along with the hellebore (already blooming). Spring is definitely in the air. :)

Southern Lady said...

Good luck with the home sale!

F Cameron said...

The sunshine is nice, isn't it? Still very cold and more snow on Tuesday in our forecast - again!

I gave all of my seedlings a sprinkle of water today to keep them moist since the wind was very drying today. I think I'll have a fairly good showing of nigella and larkspur, but I think the birds and torrential rains enjoyed a lot of my poppy seeds!

Cameron

Victoria Williams said...

Have fun digging into gardening!

Jennifer AKA keewee said...

Happy gardening. I too made a little headway in my garden today, and discovered that my trillium is in bud, which excited me as I was told they can be difficult to grow.

Randy Emmitt said...

Thanks for the comments I always appreciate them very much!

It was 38 degrees when i went out in the yard, came back in and returned when it was 42 degrees. I managed to plant the transplanted hellebore and trillium. The 4 Home Depot camellias also found a home in the woodland, these were the ones I picked up for $3.33 each on close out. And I planted a double 8 foot row of Sugar Snap Peas and a little Swiss Chard.
Still had time for dim som brunch and a family gathering late in the afternoon.

compost in my shoe said...

I've moved gardens 5 times in my 20 some odd years. It is so fun to give them chances to shine in the next perfect spot! Have fun.

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

I guess your cold winter has slowed down the return of butterflies? I'm glad you get to get out in the garden today, it's so nice when you can get back out in it. I've been noticing lots of bumblebees around here, no butterflies of any type yet.

Dave@TheHomeGarden said...

It was a good weekend to get outdoors and do stuff! Next weekend looks even better here. I cut back all the ornamental grasses and finally got the mower in the shed. I saw two moths while working in the shed but no butterflies!

tina said...

Yeah for gardening! I need to get into mine too it has been so cold. No butterflies here but do moths count? We've seen them and heard the peepers last week when it was warm. I SO love them! A sure sign of spring in my neck of the woods. They stopped once it got cold again:( Good luck selling the house.

IlonaGarden said...

We are still locked in cold, but the Franklin Park Conservatory will soon have its annual butterfly exhibit! That always gives ppl in Ohio a breath of real spring :)

Bangchik and Kakdah said...

We try not to get out into the garden as often as we would like to, because the weather is extremely hot these few days... Enjoy spring gardening! ~bangchik

sweetbay said...

Yes it's been nice to get out in the garden again hasn't it -- although the weather's not nice today!!

Skeeter said...

It may be a bit longer for Butterflies to join us in our garden. The cold will not go away for good! It keeps sneaking back to GA....

Anonymous said...

I am so happy for you, Randy, to be able to do some REAL gardening! And a little jealous. Why is it that the most numerous butterflies are those cabbage whites? We has given up growing all the cabbage family because of them, there is no stopping the eating and I don't want to spray so there you have it. Good luck with the house sale, and a trillium is certainly worth digging! :-)
Frances