Travels during the last couple of months, as fun as they were, have upped my yearning to spend more time in the garden. There’s much work to be done and beauty to enjoy.

Today I noticed the first lovely asparagus shoots.

The raspberry hedge has greened up and promises another yummy harvest. I spent one day last week pruning it and cutting away all spent floricanes.

Edging the slope we call Lupine Hill, five young lilac bushes are in tight bud, with a couple exceptions.

The wide variety of clematis vines all over Coppertop, from the front stoop to down along the garden shed, have begun their creeping growth, each day displaying more leaves and buds.

First tips of grasses have broken the pond’s surface. Frog song is surely not far behind.

The appeal of early springtime worms keeps the hens too busy in the flower beds, so we’re coming up with ways to protect young plants from the girls’ continual scratching. The veggie garden’s gate allowed the chooks to pass through and create yet more havoc, so Hubby secured the gaps with none other than chicken wire! A couple of our eleven hens are completing their very first molt. Even with the flurry of feathers they’ve dropped, egg production remains at 5-8 daily. And the sight of fresh eggs in the nesting boxes never gets old!