Spring begins.
This is my 10th year as a Missouri Master Gardener. The first event is planting plugs in prepared pots that will grow and be ready for our annual community plant sale at the end of April. Our chapter has a greenhouse that works well for this purpose.
To get more in the gardening mood, my husband, who is also a Missouri Master Gardener (8th year), look forward each year to a Missouri Master Gardening Workshop in Branson, Missouri. It is an all day event that allows us to receive more than our required six hours for Continuing Education. So many interesting and relavent topics provided over the years! There are also numerous garden-related venders for products and booths for information. The catered breakfast and lunch are worth the trip alone! The 6-8 presentations are done with slideshows by experienced gardeners and professionals. We never leave empty handed and can still learn new things. We are now ready to GROW!
But winter has to have one last round of snow laid down on our backyard gardens...
Soon the color begins with the first crocus and daffodils of the season.
The Master Gardener Greenhouse is located behind the McCarty Senior Center in Wheatland. There is also a large vegetable garden and the landscape of the building that are projects by all the Hickory County Master Gardeners. Keith and I have the Settlers Village nearby as our main volunteer project that we have been doing by ourselves for many years now. We are close to the Senior Center which serves nutrious meals everyday including a meal-on-wheels program. The Master Gardener's vegetble garden is just a few feet from the kitchen door and it supplies a large variety of fresh vegetables throughout the growing season. The excess is frozen for later use. On St. Patrick's Day we enjoyed a meal of corned beef and cabbage for a donation of $4.00.
We always wait until there's at least three consecutive nights of at least 50 degree temps before we begin to clear off last year's dead garden debris. This is done to allow the good insects to hatch. This minimizes the harmful insects. We have never used any insecticide. Most of our plants come back on their own as they are natives and self-seeders. We fill in areas with annuals from the greenhouse for color with plant sale leftovers. After the rains, we mulch by mid-June. This year the weather was at least two weeks later for everything. So this year we decided to plant our home gardens later. We needed to make a trip to see relatives in Iowa in the meantime.
Keith's youngest sister died from COVID. Her husband and two single daughters decided not to tell her siblings and mother. We found out on our own three days before she passed away after being in the hospital a couple months. There was to be no funeral or memorial service for all family members. She was cremated. The original family members got together five days after her passing. I'm glad we did.
While we were in Iowa we got together with my Maid-of-Honor to our wedding 48 years ago and her husband who we always try to visit when we are in town. They were a great comfort while we vented our sorrowful feelings as they also knew the families involved. We were now ready to come back to Missouri and leave as much of this sadness here. Time to live and grow!
Shortly after we got home, it was time to have our granddaughter stay with us again. Since the previous summer, we have had her stay overnight five days every ten days. It is such a joyful time when she is here and so very quiet when she leaves. Our routine, when we do have one, always includes a short 5-mile drive to the Outlet Park below the Pomme deTerre Dam. This is the most frequent playground and activity area as our own children had growing up and here we are again! Plenty of room to run, trails to walk and explore, playground equipment, safe roads to bike, and community activities.
At our house we have playdough...outside! Love to be creative which usually means much of it lands on the ground outside instead on the floor inside.
Bobi Kitty is always the Observant One! He is usually close by.
Easter time fell on a weekend we didn't have her but the next town had their activities a week before which turned out perfect especially since it was the better weather weekend! Perfect time for a rainbow princess dress!
Gotta love the Easter Bunny! She was not at all shy this year at age four as she had been when she was younger.
Grandpa and Babi had about as much fun that day which also got us on see-saws, swings, and slides. Plenty of Easter Eggs were found!
Big surprize came when our granddaughter won a large Easter Basket in a raffle! There were also hotdogs, chips, pop, and cotton candy to add to all the sugar treats and candy. Much more play time to burn some of it off before we went home after a long fun day!
Of course, what is Easter without a decorated bedroom?
The following weekend was actually Easter and it was a little cooler. Her mother dressed her up cute for their local events which included baby chicks, bunnies, pony rides, and another Easter egg hunt! So much more fun with many kid activities!
You know it is really going to STAY SPRING when the crappie fish are biting and the morel mushrooms are found.
It wasn't long before the first hummingbird found the feeder I had just set out. I love when my Little Sweeties come back after a long winter!
By the time the tulips are blooming, the American Goldfinches arrive. The cardinals stay here year round and are soon bringing their youngsters to the feeders.
Sneaked a peak in the blubird house and found four little ones hatched! We usually have 3-4 broods per season from this box in our front yard.
Time for more regular exercise as we walk the 3 miles along the Running River Trail at the Outlet Park below the dam. It is a great trail just 5 miles from our home in Hermitage. I cannot resist taking photos of the first plants of the season before the ticks and chiggers take over and the grasses and weeds cover up the ground.
Bloodroot Sanguinaria canadensis
Dutchman's breeches Dicentra cucullaria
Rue anemone Anemonella thalictroides.
Yellow rocket Barbarea vulgaris
Harvey's buttercup Ranunculus harveyi
Pussyttoes Antennaria parlinii
Glade Moss
Glade Lichen
Glade Lichen - Ilavoparmelia baltimorensis
Variety of mossses and lichen on a glade
Viola missouriensis (Missouri violet) white and Viola sororia (hairy wood violet) purple
Violet wood sorrel Oxalis violacea
Wood betony aka Lousewort Pedicularis canadensis
Here comes the Baltimore Orioles! Bunches of them entertaining us for their grape jelly, sugar water, and oranges! Keeping me busy along with the increase of hummingbirds' sugar water and the feeders of black oil sunflower seeds and suet.
Joy is a new box of sidewalk chalk...the BIG One!
New Minnie Mouse Hoodie Princess Dress as the tulips are in full bloom.
Rose-Breasted Grossbeak on the pink dogwood tree as it begins to leaf out.
The Outlet Park below the dam is the location every spring for state wide and local water rescuers to train and is a fun thing to watch.
Our granddaughter was so excited to see a "girl" do all the things the "boys" can do! She even took the time to come over to our granddaughter to talk to her and encourage her to be whatever she wanted to be!
So brave and strong!
Close to home now with the redbuds and dogwoods blooming; both are Missouri Native Trees we planted many years ago.
This Japanese maple came with the house so must be about 44 years old now. Big thick trunk looks like a large bonsai tree!
Rose Verbena in my Native Garden smells so sweet!
My lilac brush hedge was planted as small slips the year my daughter graduated in 2000. They got over 20' tall a few years ago and I had trimmed and pruned them to a height I can reach the blooms.
Lots of blue violets in our hammock area!
Summer Taneger tells me summer is just around the corner now! We have both the male and female and expect to see some young ones later.
Two big strawberry gardens keep our granddaughter busy looking for ripe sweet berrieswhen she's here. The large catnip plant up front keeps Bobi Kitty busy and us entertained watching him!
No comments:
Post a Comment