Spring Inches Along.

4-15-21 VERMONT: It’s raining and supposed to rain until sometime tomorrow. We need every drop. I need the day off. 

The clean up is done, thanks to our lawn guys and me. The fertilizing is done as of yesterday, and it should get watered in by the rain. Judy and I bought two new outdoor benches and set them up as well as all the old ones so there is lots of seating out there in the rain. We also put the picnic table back on the deck and put out the deck furniture.

I skimmed a lot of floating algae from the pond when the wind had blown it all near the end of the pond. We took the granite plaque with the dogs names to the engraver so Gus’ name can be added to the others. We put up a brass plaque on Brady the horse’s barn to commemorate his death.

Two turtles have been sunning almost continuously on the edge of the pond. Last year there were four, perhaps five, in residence, but turtles come and go.

I have one tree irrigator, a big, 20 gallon, plastic bag that zips up around the trunk of a newly planted tree, to keep the new tree hydrated when things dry out. You fill it with the hose and it drips water for about 24 hours. I went to six garden/hardware stores to get another one without success. Two minutes on Amazon found them with two-day delivery promised. 

New blooms: hepatica, forsythia, daffodil, blood root, yellow primrose, colts foot. 

Primrose, one of several kinds, last post I showed a purple one.

Hepatica blooms early, but the unopened leaves, which someone once thought looked like a liver, last all season in deep shade. They don't look like livers to me.

Hellebore, Lenten Rose, is another early bloomer, but it so bashful you only see the back of the flower unless you ask it to smile...

It's pretty if you get it to look at you. I wonder who pollinates it when it's facing the ground.