CROCUS..FIRST SIGN OF SPRING

My neighbor, Liz, took some pictures of the crocuses in the front of my home. Spring is here, officially!

March 6 rainy day painting

this painting was a waterfall painting that I had done that I did not like, so I kind of redid it. Again, trying to paint with no tutorial. Apologies for always painting waterfalls. I am obsessed with waterfalls.

Keeping track of all your flowers.

Sometime around 2015, just before I started this blog, I realized that the variety of flowers I had in my garden was becoming a challenge to keep track of. At that time I had just taken a course on Excel, so I decided I would keep track of all of my plants in an Excel spreadsheet. I am so glad that I did that! Now, when I completely lose the name of a plant, I can actually look it up and find it on my spreadsheet. I actually have a number of pages and a total of close to 200 plants. On the spreadsheet are six columns. They are :

1. Common name
2. Perennial, shrub, or vine
3. Botanical name
4. Source
5. Description… Usually color
6. Bloom week, such as 1 – May, 3 – June, etc.
7. 
   

The spreadsheet is continually updated, because even though I resist, each year, I add more plants. If you are an avid gardener, it is very helpful to keep track of what plants are on your property and their sources. The one column I would have loved to add, but never did would be the date that I acquired the plant. I would just be curious to find out how long the plant has been in my garden..

In addition to that little tidbit, I just wanted to mention that many bulbs are starting to peek out from beneath the soil. The crocuses are in bloom, the daffodils are already about 5 inches high, and even the tulips are starting to appear.

Indoors, most of the flowers have germinated and begun to grow. . The basil has just started to grow. But there are little tiny rose Campion, Larkspur, snapdragons, marigolds, and others.
I will start the vegetable seedlings around March 15. I have gone to the vegetable garden and fertilized both the asparagus and the garlic. Today, I trimmed some roses, and took the cuttings and put them in the ground in the wildflower garden… otherwise known as the enchanted garden! that is the garden that I will not be fertilizing or pruning or weeding! It is an experiment which has so far been very, very successful. I am also not allowed to spend any money at all on the enchanted garden. All plants in the enchanted garden are from plants I already have. The trees are from seedlings produce from seeds that have dropped from the rose of Sharon tree. As I have already mentioned, there are now about 20 five foot tall rose of Sharon trees that produce beautiful pink flowers every August and September. All of the perennials are simply either divisions or cuttings from plants I have in my other beds.

The weather is really starting to warm up now, and we are expecting a lot of rain, so today I put down some fertilizer and lime. My next chore will be to throw down some granulated chicken manure on all of the perennial beds.

enjoy the spring. Is my favorite time of year, for obvious reasons.