Springtime in the Rockies

Yippee. I think "spring" is finally here. Right about now you are probably thinking I'm a little bit crazy but in truth I live in the Rockies and "spring" comes later here.

We always joke about springtime in the Rockies being an oxymoron because there really is no such thing. Tuesday we had a snow and ice storm with a low of twenty-five degrees and this weekend we will see the temperatures climb to seventy degrees. That is quite toasty here where fifty degrees is t-shirt weather.

Even though the weather will be so nice I am sticking to the rule: Don't plant anything until after Memorial Day. I made the mistake of not following that rule three years ago. After several weeks of mild weather I couldn't wait the five more days until Memorial Day and I did some heavy planting. Three days later I had a yard full of black plants following a several snow storm. It was definitely a sad day but I learned my lesson well.

This year I have planting woes for a different reason. I became inpatient for gardening season, as usual, and decided to plant some seedlings indoors. Not only did everything germinate extremely quickly but almost to 100%. Uh-oh, planting season was still several weeks away. I have had to re-pot my seedlings from their little peat pots to one gallon containers which necessitated putting up a six foot table to set them on. Oh my, what a mess.

It's all working out though. I'm at the countdown point. Now I get to start setting them to harden and get ready to plant. Of course there are still some below freezing nights in store (and possibly a snow storm) so in they will come at night.

I do see some green sprouts in my flowerbeds. Unfortunately, some of them are weeds. We wage a special war against the dandelions here in Montana. I'll have to write about them sometime because they deserve their own story.

Along with the green sprouts in the yard, I have made some great progress with the new website. There are still some glitches here and there (I view them as the weeds on my website) but nothing a little more work won't fix. Come on by and see the progress: http://ExtremeGardeners.com

Until next time,
Marilyn

My Yard Art

I like to think of my yard as a work in progress, ever evolving and hopefully, improving. One of my most enjoyable elements of my yard are the decorations I have scattered here and there. My yard art allows me to use my imagination and show my whimsical side. It also can serve a very practical purpose by filling in some bare looking spots that sometimes exist as you wait for your plantings to mature.

Let me tell you how I got so interested in decorating my flowerbeds. When we retired and moved, I decided to de-clutter my house and do away with most of my knick-knacks. After awhile I missed looking for something new and different. I decided that if I channeled that to my yard at least I wouldn’t have to dust anything! My yard art was born.

You can develop a theme or just be eclectic like I am. I have a friend who has nothing but birdhouses scattered throughout their yard and another who only has frog statuary. I tend to do little scenes such as a wagon filled with flowers and a duck fishing at an imitation pond. I have benches, lanterns and wind chimes as well as gargoyles scattered throughout my yard. I even used a brass headboard as a trellis, the five dollars I spent at a garage sale was a bargain and it looks and works just great. As soon as the weather allows I will once again set all of these out, probably in different locations, probably in different arrangements, just to keep it interesting.

The thing about yard art is that it is fun and easy. Look around in your garage and you’ll probably find several things to get started. Painting up the kids old play gardening set and arranging them in a flowerbed can be very eye-catching. Paint an old watering can and set it on an interesting rock in your flowerbed. Don’t forget your trees. It can be a nice surprise for visitors to your yard to find an interesting object suspended in your tree branches. The ideas only end with your imagination so get out there and have some fun!