limbs

bring out her flowers

mow the yard

kill groundhogs ( of all of Gods creatures, i hate those most )

I'd allowed snow to pack to the depth of the first step on the walkway between the back deck and the back door of the garage.  I cleaned it off about a week ago.

Have also removed the "mouse guard" from around base of the 4-5ish year old hawthorne tree out front.

Removed most of an old robins' nest atop the brickwork at one corner of the house. We've had a pair nest there most years until the last couple ... maybe they've gone to the big nest in the sky?  We're hopeful cleaning it up will entice a new pair.

Looked at the mouse poison I'd put in the travel trailer last fall .... not even a nibble. 

Took a brief look at the roto-tiller .... but didn't find the model number.  [But I figure it's best to save a bit of work for tomorrow or next week.   ]

Man, just thinking about ^^ is makin' me tired ... best shuffle over to the recliner for some TIMing.

Move a chair out onto my balcony (I live in an apt.) , so I can tally up the new potholes on the street.
Re-learn “When the Springtime Comes Again” (“Little Annie”)
Vacuum the car floors and fill up the washer fluid reservoir

Weeding, mulching and recutting borders for all our planted areas.

We have a large lot with a variety of landscape features.

This past fall I installed drip irrigation almost everywhere (with the help of an 80-year-old retired minister who advises people on design and installation). So tuning that up for its first season and programming the two timers for its four zones is a task for this week.

A couple days ago, I scraped, filled, and repainted the wood railings on the front porch steps. Paint was peeling in spots and the railings -- not even 10 years old -- were cracking.  The porch steps get southwest sun in the afternoon. And since they're beyond the cover of the porch roof, they get rained on. The railings take a beating.

My daughter's family just gave me a camera-equipped bird feeder for my birthday, so I have to learn how to use it and figure out a place to mount it.

Along the lines of Owen's comment about getting no nibbles on the mouse poison he set out over the winter, I replaced a worn-out sock feeder in a front yard tree with a tube thistle feeder and it is as full today as it was in November. I have a fresh sock feeder to try, but it's yellow like the cap and perches on the tube, so maybe the birds won't like this either. We have goldfinches on our street but they rarely come to my yard.

Picking up fallen dead branches (actually a year round task)
Photographing the first crocus bloom.
Planting some flower seeds in my milkweed garden
Cutting out the dead stalks from my wine berry patch and shredding them to almost nothingness with my electric wood chipper (threw the shredded stuff under the living wine berries).

Spraying for weeds (warm winter and the weeds flourished), mowing, edging, clearing debris. Inside: getting rid of stuff that I should have gotten rid of years ago (this is an ongoing problem, I start and don't finish).


No flower garden for me this year. Just too much trouble. I'll miss it.

Making sure the a/c is up and ready. It’s allready been pushing 90 a couple of weeks.

For me, there's no such thing as a first spring related activity  - it's all one big whirl.

I leave most of the bits of limbs that fall right where they lay. I do have one large Chinese Chestnut (tasty nuts when roasted!) branch that I need to cut up and move to the woodpile, though.

Some light bush hogging and light mowing in selected areas here at the new place - I'm largely letting Mother Nature have her way with the land. Last year I had two neighbors offer to mow for me. I guess they figured I was too dumb/lazy/poor to do it myself. After I told them about letting most of it go wild and the wild meadow, they seemed happy. They seemed to be trying to be helpful, not nosy or intrusive.

I'm getting rid of some non-native and invasive plants. I have a landscape guy starting to put in a wild meadow. If it's successful, I'll expand it. I'm figuring out some of the trees and bushes and shrubs I never looked at last year. Some will stay, some will go (non-native, etc.).

Gonna start some echinacea and related bee/butterfly friendly plants separate from the meadow. Gotta try to help Ma Nature, and they'll help some of my veggies as well. Echinacea is somewhat native, at least certain types. Need to look up others before I plant anything.

I planted some ramps last year. Many are up, and I'm super happy about that. It will be a few years before I even harvest leaves, though, much less bulbs.

Getting the summe veggie garden growing. The overwintered lettuce did OK even with extended cold spells in the teens and 20s F, and a 1 foot snowfall which lingered for weeks. The spinach was a complete bust for some reason. Hairy vetch did well as a cover crop. I never used it before, but will again. I've started lots of seedlings in pots, which is not the same as pot seedlings!  If I have a "first" activity, it's probably garden-related.

Need to clean the windows once the tree pollen is done.

Went for a hike yesterday, played tennis this morning, did some garden cleanup/prep this afternoon, and will do more soon. Now it's time to read and play an openback. You know, "That half barbaric twang".

A big thanks so far !

It's really interesting to know what u folks are up to dealing w/ spring activities !

Does anyone here watch "Port Protection" on TV ? That's about actual people helping each other on a actual tiny island in Alaska . Our favorite show for years .
I'm only mentioning it cause its a group of people like us helping each other . Its not wiz bang excitement but about people .

Branches. Raking. Switch the snow blower with the lawn mower. Sneak some wildflower seeds into the butterfly garden. Check the back yard for poison ivy. Mow when the grass comes back.

Remove the trainer tire from the main bicycle and replace with the road tire. Get busy riding 'cause I have to train someone.

Today my wife and I tried to clear this bed of Lilly of the Valley. We have plenty of it elsewhere that we don't mind. But my wife has ideas for here. Especially since we just had a local muralist paint a wisteria  on the garage. I'm looking at it now from "my" seat at the kitchen table.

The soil and compost in this bed were piled high and so the bulbs of the flowers were deep. Working from the two ends, we ran out of energy before meeting in the middle. It's very warm today in suburban DC and the mid-day sun was beating down on us.

All In due time.

Thought I'd add that I got all the greenhouse flowers outside, cleaned them up, watered them. Had several hanging plants and had to get up on a ladder and run a chain down where I could attach the chain to the flower basket. I used to do that in just a few minutes and now? Takes me a while and wears me out. Getting old ain't much fun sometimes.

I got a head start before leaving on a job.
Hired a company to remove a large dying old maple tree and grind stump.
Prepared all the pots and gardens
Some clean up. The other maple was prolific this year with their winged seeds. Arghhh.
When back home:
Buy plants, (I have the seeds already)
Plant
and start the watering routine. But we are limited with restrictions due to the reservoir being very low.
Then wife will decide a few annual, to buy and plant.
Hire company to paint exterior of house and do some repairs.

Last week I actually cut the grass. I know its Canada but apparently we live in the banana belt. The last few days were spent completing a bathroom renovation which a faster worker would have completed in the dead of winter.

Dispatching as many wasp as I can. If I don’t they will get out of hand. They seem to be more active this time of year then in the past.