Spring bulbs, forcing cleanup

The allium and daffodil foliage started emerging a month ago, but cold weather slowed it down. (In recent years it's pushed out early and gotten zapped by late freezes.) Although only the crocus have started to bloom, I figured it was time...

...to clean up this bed. It is the first thing that people see when they drive past my house, so it should be something worth looking at, right? (It's where the rose support is, so maybe they're not noticing the mess?)

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Don't be tempted: fruit trees

Is there any symbol of spring more powerful than a fruit tree in blossom? Is there any thought more appealing to the winter weary shopper than being able to walk out into your garden and pick a juicy, ripe fruit straight from the tree?

Combine the two and you have a very strong potential for impulse buy: fruit trees!

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Delicious Spring?

There are tastes of Spring in the air...

...and is there a springier taste than rhubarb? (probably)

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A little game after the rain

Let's play a little game, okay? I'll show you a photo, and you just have to tell me if it's 1) a water feature or 2) a problem caused by a week of rain.

These photos are all from a couple of weeks ago, around Feb 25 after several days of rain. I think we got 5" (13cm) or so total over a few days.

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Frosty mornings, still

It's been alternating between warm and cold lately...

...which leads to beautifully thin ice fragments, and wonderfully frosted vehicles on some mornings!

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Eight-year anniversary: best of INWIG 2017

According to Blogger I made my first blog post on March 5, 2010 which means today is my eight-year anniversary!  One of the main reasons for creating this blog was so I'd document everything I did in the garden, and although I've slowed down over the past year with less frequent posts, I've still captured some important moments.Hopefully I have still given some entertainment and knowledge to you, my readers over the past year. (Or several years if you've been reading for a while or went back to discover older posts).

Today, as I've done every March 5 since I started, I'm going to take a look back over the past year and list my favorite posts in chronological order. If you haven't seen them before please take a look. If you have seen them already, then take another look -- it's still fun! I did this type of post on my previous anniversaries too, and I really like the way they turned out. See them here.

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Warm weather makes it happen

The other day when the temperature reached 82ºF (28ºC) I knew I had to take advantage of it and get something done in the garden. But what? Where to start? Actually, the answer was pretty easy: the veggie garden!

These raised beds, fenced to keep the herbivores out, sat fallow and unused all of last year. I suppose "unused" is the wrong word though, since Nature used it to grow whatever it wanted to.

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The pond, end of January

After a very cold start to January, the pond had a thick layer of ice on it. I can't really say how thick it was (at least 6"/15cm), but it lasted for most of the month. It thawed a bit once and got over an inch of rain on it, then another cold snap froze that.

By the last day of the month though, most of the ice was gone and I was able to take a good look.

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What to do: dividing Aloes

Like many gardeners -- even casual ones -- I have a few Aloe barbadensis (Aloe Vera) plants that I received from others. This "small" one is now several big plants, each ready for its own pot.

The question I have is how exactly do I divide this?

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