Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Rain and Shine

Sunday it rained. Monday it was sunny.

We make hay while the sun shines.  The raspberry and blackberry plants Tom ordered from RainTree Nursery finally arrived, so he got them planted.

The raspberries came packed in shredded newspaper. 
 The variety of raspberries is Tulameen. Tom asked for advice from a grower at the Puyallup Farmers Market last summer, and then did more research, and decided they were the way to go. We have hopes of  producing a berry crop and avoiding the Asian fruit fly that ruined the fruit of our old patch. The planting area has been fallow, growing only "wild flowers" for two years. 
 Tom measured and laid out the plants.
 All planted, the ground cover fabric will let in water and air, but discourage weeds, flower seeds, and old raspberry roots that might have escaped us. Post and wire trellising will come later. 

I got some weeding done and got a start on the lawn edging. But now today it is stormy again, at least so far this morning. Any photos I took were from under coer. 
 The tulips are coming into bloom.
 The clump of trillium outside the front door is water logged. 
 The full moon maple in the front yard is blooming and leafing out. 

We are cleaning house this morning. I also finally got around to scheduling appointments, so now I am set to have eyes, ears, and teeth checked, as well as my annual physical.

 I see that the sky is beginning to clear. Tom has hopes of doing more work outside this afternoon. I hope to get in a walk. 

Looks like we'll have rain and shine for the rest of the week, with an emphasis on the rain. 

Typical March weather. Oh, wait, this is April. Well, then, April showers drown April flowers. 

18 comments:

  1. Hi Linda,
    Your garden and flowers are beautiful. Raspberries . . . yum! It's still too cold here in Maine to plant; I can't wait to get out there when it warms up . . . hopefully soon! ~Cheryl

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  2. Your border flower gardens are beautiful! One of my retirement projects was to plant perennial flowers and plants all around our backyard. It's a work in progress... someday I hope it looks like yours!

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  3. It sure does look like spring in your pictures. I do miss seeing the tulips bloom.

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  4. At least I got a short walk in between showers this morning. Was in the door about two minutes before a real downpour. Without Bob my calendar of medical appointments is very bare. My few little appointments about to very little. I’m so thankful we are moving into spring and summer. I need to be out and about.

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  5. Your gardens look beautiful already! Here we say April snow showers bring May snowplowers:)

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  6. It looks great, Linda. I am still working on getting my front porch flowers lined up before tackling the garden. I look forward to what happens with these raspberries. I know you'll keep me posted. :-)

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  7. You two do such an amazing job with everything in your gorgeous garden which is looking magnificent in it's spring glory. Glad you're going to have your head examined - people have told me I should have that done for years.

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  8. I hope those new raspberries thrive and do NOT get infected by the fruit flies.

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  9. I wish I had a better place for my raspberries. You certainly have greened up there.

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  10. Love your garden. Glad that your grass is looking good again - lawns do love rain.

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  11. It is all looking so wonderful already. We have yet to make a start.

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  12. spring weather is always changeable...

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  13. We have those flies in our goldens - can't convince my husband to dig them out and start over. We also had them in our long-time cherry tree - nothing worse than going to eat a cherry and have a worm look you in the face. We just killed the tree by cutting the bark off around the bottom and planted evergreen clematis and honeysuckle to climb the dead trunk after cutting back the limbs. It should be a piece of art in years to come and no digging out the tree.

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  14. That corner of your garden with tulips blooming is so beautiful, Linda!
    A lot of work with the new plants, but rewards are coming!

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  15. Your garden is really coming to life. Just beautiful. Liked the ground cover and wish I has used some on my raised beds. They are full of weeds. We are also living with a bouncing thermometer.

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  16. It’s all so beautiful. It is good to see spring in your lovely garden.

    I envy you the raspberries. Years ago, when my children were young, we had about 3/4 of an acre and the back end of it was in raspberries. They take a lot of work when it is time to prune them, and they take a lot of water, which you will have in the northwest, but all of the work and water is worth it when fresh raspberries are on the table. In those days, I also had three peach trees, a large vineyard, and a large vegetable garden. I did a lot of canning. I have no idea how I did it all while also raising five kids, but those days were great days.

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  17. I am guessing that you do not go indoors with all this beauty. We love our raspberries!

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  18. Oh I do love your pink tulips! I watched a full weather forecast for Seattle today and thought about you. They mentioned rain several times. I was waiting to hear the forecast for NC as we have that line of severe weather coming through tonight, with a chance of tornadoes. I dearly love spring but with it comes storms. I've been missing you lately and need to do better at keeping up. :)

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