Is it spring yet? Must be!!

It seems that spring has finally sprung in Western Pennsylvania. Or at least, it's trying to spring into being by tossing me a bunch of snow crocuses (no photos--the wind blew them over within hours). And that means I've got outdoor work to get done. First on the agenda was planting the roses that Husbeast gave me for Christmas. I'd been trying for years to find the heavily scented pink rose that we had at our previous house. Having tried numerous times unsuccessfully to start one from a cutting of that old bush, I resorted to finding one to purchase. Edmunds Roses had the perfect plant and another rose that I fell in love with. Into the ground they went yesterday morning, along with their surrounding protective fencing (have I mentioned that the deer around here eat everything, and have a particular fondness for roses and spring bulbs?)



Tough to see in the shadow, but that's a young rose there.

If you have a garden, you know that one thing leads to another. In order to get posts for the rose fences I had to dig out the dead apple tree. But those posts were too tall, so had to swap them out with the peach tree which needed taller posts and a good pruning anyway. So out to the garage to get the ladder, up the ladder to pound in posts and prune branches, then hook the fencing to the posts.



Ta-da! Refenced peach tree!

During that journey I realized that the elderberries (you can see some of them against the blue shed, upper left of the photo) will need their fencing redone because the deer have been pushing at it, trying to bend it inwards so they can get some tasty young elderberry shoots. sigh.....

Then there's the garden to be uncovered. I cover the boxes with black plastic every fall to prevent the many pine needles from falling on the soil and turning into an acidic mix that won't support life. It also helps to warm the soil and the birds just love the water puddles that form all winter--they need fresh water all year and can't get it from snow.

Today it's raining all day so I'm spinning. But tomorrow morning I have plenty to do out in the yard. Oh, and I probably should start those seeds inside if I want tomatoes and green peppers.