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Spring, that is - finally sprung. We had a wonderful weekend full of sunshine, t-shirts, chicken chores, garden work and outdoor violin and banjo concerts courtesy of Kim and our talented young neighbours next door. It felt wonderful to be outside and working in the garden, even though, as could have been predicted, we overdid it a bit. I should have read the Annual Letter Full of Good Advice a bit earlier this year, I think... Sore muscles aside, Mucky Boots Farm is a happy place these days. The perennial beds are full of snowdrops and aconite past their prime but still welcome, now joined by yellow and purple crocuses (croci?) and the first tulip and lily shoots. I am determined to make friends with the perennial garden this year, so I made good use of the sunshine to get started on the first of many projects that I hope will make the garden feel like mine. This weekend that involved planting the last of the shrubs we bought in fall sales, that spent the winter snuggled up in the greenhouse, and digging out the bricks that once neatly edged the beds but had been buried in successive years' worth of moss, grass and mulch. (Before: left side of path. After: right side.)
Moss is one of the most beautiful and underrated crops we grow here at Mucky Boots, especially on the shady side of the pond. One of the bricks I dug out there was so beautifully adorned I saved it to share with you. We've been busy in the vegetable garden, too, with the annual Rebuild Two Beds event. (It's so lovely to think that we've been here long enough to celebrate annual events!) We're getting better and better at this: our corners are now so neat and tight we think of them as miracles of engineering. The freshly milled cedar comes from a local lumber yard -they are full dimensioned 2x6 boards, nice and beefy, and they look and smell wonderful. It won't take them long to weather to the grey of the older beds, but for now they look as fresh and new as the season. While we've been making use of the fine weather to get outdoor tasks done, the chickens have another idea entirely. Warm sunshine and dry weather can mean only one thing to a chicken tired of a wet and mucky winter... Posted by Miriam at 11:52 AM Labels: chickens, perennial garden, spring, vegetable garden 
Oh those new beds look so fresh and clean compared to the old ones. Although I like the weathered look, too.

Were it not for a stormy, cold as hell weekend, I would've been out there overdoin' it with ya'.

March 26, 2012 at 5:14 PM 
Hello Miriam!! I have been thinking about you! Even though I have somehow missed your last couple of posts (I've got to pay better attention!) I have been wanting to tell you that I was so excited this year as the very first color I had this spring was my Aconite!!! If you recall, I was admiring yours and you told me where I could order it, which I did, and now I have my very own! There weren't too many this year, but it's good start, just like your garden is--Which will be really lovely, I just know it!!

I loved the video of the chicken, and could hear banjo music in the background! :-)

March 26, 2012 at 5:22 PM jeanives said...

It was a gorgeous weekend indeed. i spent most of Sunday just sitting in the sun reading. Sublime. And then there is the forecast for this week...

March 26, 2012 at 9:21 PM Crazy Lady with purple fingers said...

So love the pictures of your flowers and the new raised bed in the garden, we are so brown and drizzly here right now, it can not decide whether it is snowing or raining, will be so glad to get my raised beds up at this place and have a garden this year. will be nice to see leaves on the trees and some green grass. we have a lot of landscaping to do this year. Bring on spring!!!

March 26, 2012 at 11:30 PM 
Moss is my favorite, favorite thing. Love the stuff.

Your raised beds are glorious. I've already started my nagging this year. I'm holding out for raised beds for the past few years. It's the best way to go in my mind.

Just remember to take it easy with your gardening! We always say: it's a marathon, not a race!

March 27, 2012 at 6:49 PM