The daffodils and forsythia are in full bloom, the yellow singing out in the landscape. I planted seven or eight forsythia along the back fence line with the intent to have a big, bright yellow hedge each spring. It is in its second season and already each plant is becoming more substantial.

This past fall/winter I started the process of moving a row of blackberries four feet to the west as the plan for the area between the storage shed and raised beds took an exciting new direction (and I think it’ll be a much better use of space). The blackberries were moved to provide space for the eventual construction of a potting shed, greenhouse and pathways. This week, as the ground isn’t frozen solid, gave me the opportunity to continue the effort.

We have come through the worst of what winter is likely to throw at us (fingers crossed) and emerge into March, hopeful and ready for action in the garden. The daffodils are starting to emerge in the orchard meadow and I’m starting to see tulips pushing up through the bark along the front walkway, always an encouraging sign! The first weekend in March was sunny and fairly warm, perfect for getting out into the garden and doing some spring cleaning and digging.

Overnight the garden was blanketed under 4-5 inches of snow. January and February seem to be the months that we get the most snow, if we’re going to get much or any at all. It can also be quite mild for days or weeks at a time. This morning was clear and sunny with a sparkling blanket of snow laying under a bright blue sky.

The weather has been cold but quite sunny this week. Aside from anything that requires digging (although I still do it as often as the ground allows), I find that winter is usually a great window of opportunity to work on building projects: sheds, screening structures, obelisks, pergolas, the list goes on.

It has been a very foggy, frosty week in the garden and it looks great! While the ground is slowly freezing under foot, I have still been at it busy with all sorts of activities. As the weather has made progress on the storage shed almost grind to a halt, I've focused more on the potting shed / greenhouse / blackberry beds area. This has mainly involved hauling half frozen sod rolls over to the new corn / pumpkin / melon bed and continuing to unroll the sod (grass side down) into layers.

We've been lucky to get a ton of moisture and then a bit of sunshine and warmth, here at the end of November. After a brutally hot summer, everything needs a moisture recharge. Several beds were cleared of corn stalks, cosmos and zinnia stalks, and weeds getting it prepared for the next step in their evolution.

This week I removed about 1,200 square feet of sod to make way for the continued evolution of an area of the yard. I should say garden because I consider the entire yard (front and back) as a garden that happens to have areas of lawn. This particular area, off to one side and tucked into a corner of the yard (ahem…garden, that is) has had several plans drawn for it but none have really worked or stuck. However, this time the layout will stick and it feels 100 times better than previous iterations.

The last of the holdover warmth of summer that lingered late into October is now gone and true fall weather has fully arrived. The leaves have their lovely autumn color and are becoming more sparse along the tree branches.

The weather has been wonderful, including the day we got some much needed heavy rain. Since then, we have enjoyed mild and mostly sunny weather. There's a patch of lawn in the front yard that I have marked out (unintentionally looking like a giant's footprint from above) and allowed to grow as long as it wants. I had originally intended to remove the sod and build up a bed with some trees, shrubs, flowers. However, I like the shaggy island that it is there in the middle of mown lawn and I know it's good for wildlife. I plan to turn it into a small island of 'wildflower meadow' in the middle of the neatly kept lawn. I think I'll plant lupine and daffodils, perhaps some species tulips and daisies. We'll see what else makes its way into the mix.

We made another trip to one of the local orchards to pick apples (our burgeoning little orchard is still in its early years and pickings were slim this year). This particular orchard was quite large and there were tons of apples; however, I suspect that spraying was minimal (which is totally fine) it was just difficult to find good apples. We were in a section of golden delicious and the apples were very big but very few in number that weren't compromised in some way. With so many trees and apples though, we were able to fill two flats with good apples.