Winter (and the news coming from the home…) has been pretty dreary lately and it feels like Spring is never going to arrive. Occasionally I scour the garden for any little signs of the coming season for a selfish bright spot in these depressing days. Thankfully, even the most delusional of megalomaniacs cannot interfere with the earth’s axis tilt towards the sun that allows us to enjoy lengthening days of sunlight. The pioneering sprouts will start growing towards the sky and if you look hard, you can see the very first stages of growth that will lead us into the next season.

I am so, so happy to report that both of my peonies are sending up their first few shoots! If nothing else grows I must have my peonies. I’ve been watching them slowly appear and Coral Charm is growing at an impressive speed. Look closely and you can see the small ruffles of future leaves bursting out of the scarlet eyes. The anemeniflora variety is growing well, if not a little horizontally. I had a little difficulty angling in the roots when it was planted, but I don’t doubt that will straighten out easily.

My narcissus bulbs may not be faring as well… In fact, the day after planting I am sure that many of them were plucked right out of the soil by squirrels. A few were hidden well enough that they have started to just peak through, only to be met with slugs and snails!! Taking little nibbles out of the shoots. I knew they would be my most prolific adversary before even moving here, which lessens the blow. Unfortunately this year I only planted a handful of “fancy” ruffled narcissus, so I won’t have as much to show in the spring. My plan next fall is to plant a greater amount of generic daffodils, that way the squirrels and slugs can help themselves to their share and I’ll still be left with enough to enjoy myself. I think putting our squirrel feeder in the garden through next winter might fill them up enough to leave the bulbs alone. I won’t take any retaliatory action against our garden friends, they benefit the garden and let me know that it’s healthy. We are ushering in an era of mutual respect. Unless they go near my peonies…

Speaking of garden companions, we finally put our bird feeders back out after a nice clean, and the birds have been so lively in the garden it feels like spring is already here. We have blackbirds, pigeons, sparrows, and more joining us on the patio. Andrew and I both love birds and plan on adding even more feeders and houses. The chirping and ruckus the birds bring has made me so happy, I’m even more excited to add plants back there to build them a beautiful home.

While our outdoor garden wakes up we have been supplementing with some indoor growing. For Christmas I got Andrew a lion’s mane mushroom growing kit which has done so well and is probably ready for harvest. I also wanted to try one of those celery “grow hacks” and cut the bottom off of some old celery from the fridge to regrow it in a cup of water. It’s grown so much in two weeks! When more roots emerge I’ll move it into a pot and harvest some fresh indoor celery.

It’s definitely been a tough month mentally, but it’s been good to remind myself that the sun is still shining and plants are still growing. There’s lots of garden projects in the works, so I’ll try to be more committed to journaling them all down. Happy almost-very-early-but-closer-than-we-think Spring! 🙂

Katy