At the time these photos were taken (a dreary morning) there wasn't much blooming in the garden, so I snapped photos of what actually had blooms, a very short list! Our baby apple trees, our dogwood trees, some cosmos, a clematis, and a couple stock flowers and a few salvias. 

Inside the greenhouse I have been busy potting out seedlings and hoping once we get a bit of warm weather, these babies will grow stronger and bigger so I can prepare them to be planted out into the garden. I have about 60 seedlings I've had to pot out! Some of my flower seedlings never came up, rotten luck. And others just get very leggy then died. My goal is to grow as many flowers as possible for the shop for all the various reasons we use flowers (photoshoots, dried flowers for bouquets, pressed flowers for graphics and marketing) because buying flowers at the market has gotten so very, very expensive!

Oh how wonderful it is now Spring is upon us here in the Pacific Northwest! The days are longer, the days warmer, and the sun peeks out from a blanket of clouds once in awhile. I couldn't be happier!

Since the completion of our greenhouse, the calling and deep desire to tend and care for my own garden has become more clear and sweet. Like a song that has always lived inside me whose melody becomes more and more familiar with each passing day. 

It is March (well, actually it is technically April, but these photos were taken in March) and so I will share the happenings and little going ons of my garden throughout the months of the year. 

We've now passed any signs of frost (we're actually expecting our first 70+ day this week! How wonderful!), my trays of seedlings are off to a good start though I'm noticing a bit of mold on some, so I need to research on how to remedy this.

What's Growing in the Garden

The hyacinths fill the air with a scent that I find absolutely divine. I often kneel down on the ground and stick my nose right into it. The muscari, or grape hyacinths, are beginning to wane as are the daffodils, but I do so the tulips beginning to pop up. I planted many bulbs last Autumn, a bit late in November, so we'll see how they fare.

In the potager I've planted in some lupines, delphiniums, bellflowers, poppies, and phlox from plants I got from local nurseries. I have so many seedlings for the flower potager, but none are ready to be planted just yet though I have already transplated the climbing sweetpeas. 

In the kitchen garden I've planted purple kale, butter lettuce, cabbage, indeterminate tomatoes, borage, chamomile, and sweet peas. I have green peas elsewhere in the garden. I quite like mixing up veggies and flowers together, it will give the garden a more cottage look and feel, well I hope anyway.

Elsewhere in the garden, I've planted a climbing hydrangea, feverfew, daphne bushes, and california mountain lilac bushes (the latter two are in the front of the house).

I will eventually name all the different areas of the garden something. I so love that Monty Don has names for the different parts of his garden, Longmeadow. The Jewel Garden, the Cottage Garden, the Paradise Garden, and The Vegetable Garden. I'd like a name for my garden too, but a name hasn't come to me just yet. I have to see how she will shape up first before a name will come.

All the beautiful photos above were photographed by Beck Bee.

Chores Around the Garden

Gardening is so much more than planting things in the ground. There is always a long list of things to do and I go through each of them with a feeling of deep content. I know it won't always feel like this, parts of gardening will feel like work, but my approach to gardening comes from a place of gratitude to have this bit of earth to tend to.

We finished our no dig garden boxes a few weeks ago and added in layers of cardboard (all from the shop from the boxes we receive every week from our vendors!), compost, and top soil. I've pruned bushes, pinched some seedlings, mulched and added fresh new compost to my container plants, trimmed back the wisteria (and added fresh compost to the top), moved around a few plants that didn't seem too happy where they were and placed them in other areas in the garden, widened the kitchen garden, amended so much soil and sifted through wheelbarrows of dirt (our ground is full of rocks)...the list goes on and on! I don't do anything in a hurry. I make myself a list for the weekend and tackle each thing one by one without any worry of time.

Below are some quick snaps that I took with my phone of what the garden looks like right now. It will be wonderful to compare the images I will take in just a few weeks from now as I know it is going to look so much fuller and all my hard work will have paid off.

My garden is significantly smaller (VERY significantly) than Monty Don's and I am a beginner gardener at best, but I know gardening will be a lifelong endeavor for me. I will never be a master, always a student and really that is all I can hope for. To always be learning, cultivating, and having the chance of creating little corners of beauty here and there. Gardening is a massive amount of work, but it's good for the soul and heart and spirit kind of work. I lose myself in the hours of the day tilling, trimming, weeding, clipping, nipping, potting, and pottering about.  

Already this wonderful little structure has welcomed new friends near and far (I'll share those photos soon!) but most importantly it has become a space for respite and rejuvenation. For quiet moments to dream and plan not only for the garden where we will eventually be growing our own flowers and then drying them for our everlasting bouquets, but it's serving as a place of solitude where I journal and pen down my thoughts for mypiggywiggy and Atelette. 

Turn O' The Year

This is the time when bit by bit

The days begin to lengthen sweet

And every minute gained is joy

And love stirs in the heart of a boy.

This is the time the sun, of late

Content to lie abed till eight,

Lifts up betimes his sleepy head

And love stirs in the heart of a maid.

This is the time we dock the night

Of a whole hour of candlelight;

When song of linnet and thrust is heard

And love stirs in the heart of a bird.

This is the time when sword-blades green,

With gold and purple damascene,

Pierce the brown crocus-bed a-row

And love stirs in a heart I know.

- Katharine Tynan c. 1927

The days are lengthening with each passing day and I am so looking forward to sowing so many little flower seeds in the greenhouse which I have now named Lillet. I will share all the flower seedlings I'll be sowing each month, hopefully we can learn and garden together!