Springing Back to Life

When I first moved to Wisconsin, people would give me crazy advice like.... be sure to go on vacation in April to get away from the cold weather ... or don't plant your flowers until after Mother's Day or they'll freeze. I thought they were nuts. I grew up in the Northwest, where you see tulips and daffodils in March and spring comes early. But here it is, May 14, and we're just now getting ready to plant things. It's been cold here. Very, very cold.

But not anymore, friends! Spring is finally here. The color green is once again in our vocabulary and things are springing (!) back to life. In fact, look how great our lawn looks this year.

 

Not a single dandelion in sight! Well, except for that giant one in the front flower bed, but we'll just call that one a little extra color.  Here's the backyard.

I'm planning another big veggie garden this year, so I had my father-in-law Tom come over and build another garden box. I think he sees it as an investment in the future. We both have a weakness for Uncle Mike's pickles, made with cucumbers from the garden. The more room we have to play with, the more pickles we end up with! Tom built the other two garden boxes for us last year and it made the gardening so much easier. There were fewer weeds and everything seemed healthier and hardier. And no bunny troubles!

We used the same basic structure - just a few fence boards with some balusters and chicken wire. And thanks to an excessively large dirt purchase last year, we had quite a bit of extra soil hanging out in the back yard. Ben and Tom were nice enough to move it into the new box for me, while our two favorite little supervisors stood watch.

So now, all that's left is plants. We have a nice little family-owned greenhouse around the corner, so I may take a walk with our wagon sometime soon.