The First Days Of Spring

No kind of deep, existential post today.... just a little look around of what's going on in the past week.  We had a bit of a cold snap for the past 2 nights but things should warm back up tomorrow.  And hopefully, STAY warm!  I was pleased to see that the cold did not harm the blooms on this forsythia.  I've noticed that a lot of people don't like forsythias because they say, they're just big, green shrubs after the blooms fade.  But I like them.  I think the blast of sunny yellow lasts long enough and is worth just green the rest of the summer.
Whenever I have some free time I've been trying to get the yard and garden cleaned up and ready for the growing season.  We've got a lot of brush to burn, and have burned a good bit already, from when the tree trimmers came through for the power lines.  I'm fine with that though because the alternative is that they spray those horrible chemicals and I'm not having that on my land.

I like forsythias so much that I fairly regularly take cuttings off my big one and root them, like the one above.  These and blueberries are really easy to do.  With several acres in what could be considered yard, I can't afford to buy shrubbery and flowers for everything so it helps greatly to just propagate what you have.  For many shrubs I just prune off a nice strong branch, shave the bark off maybe 1/2"-1" on the end to root and just stick it in the ground.  Now, I do take them to a spot I have reserved in the garden because the garden soil is much better than what's in the yard.  Sometimes I might dip the end in rooting compound...or not.  Once I know they are established, usually about a year, I simply transplant them out into the yard.

I love to see the little fidleheads of the ferns coming up.  To me, this is the first true sign of spring.  Around these parts anyway.  These don't come up until it is shor 'nuff spring.

I finally got around to doing what I should have done long ago and that is add a third row to my asparagus bed.  I only put in 2 rows when we first made this bed because I was afraid of over-crowding but I came to the conclusion that was probably not going to happen.  Besides, if they do seem to get crowded in the years to come I can always thin them to share with friends.  As we always used to say in construction....better to have too much than not enough.  (and that goes for about anything, lol!).
This year I am determined to finally finish the entrance to the garden and the fruit beds that line the perimeter.  I got a pretty good start on that this weekend.  Hopefully I can keep my momentum up.

I got a couple of new bird feeders, including this one specifically for the goldfinches and I have been amazed at how many are now coming around.  In the past, I had seen 2 or 3 at most but now we are getting 8-10 or more.  I just love them and the bright yellows.  Or even the dull yellows.  They are feisty little birds too!  They fight over that thistle seed and will get up in each other's face, screaming as loud as they can.

So, that's about it for garden progress.  Hopefully I'll have a lot more pretty soon.  Anybody already got theirs planted?