More walks, more nature treasures. Jeff and Bracken planted a primrose by the front walkway. It’s done blooming now, but I’m glad I got a picture while it was still in it’s glory, it looked technicolor on rainy days and really stood out against all the green, green, green. Whenever we go to the grocery store at the coast (with lots of flowers out front, as you walk in the doors), Bracken wants to bring all the flowers home.

The garden is coming to life. Bracken spotted the first forget-me-nots. Jeff has been anxiously awaiting the nettles and we check them most days on our walks. They are still tiny. The comfrey is beginning to reemerge. I know for many people it spreads like crazy, but we don’t have that problem where it’s growing and make the most of the comfrey we have, usually harvesting from it a few times a year (for salves.) The currant bushes are covered in new leaves. And the raspberries are green again, but with the late pruning I did, we have yet to see if we will get spring raspberries.

We’ve had quite a few friends comment in the past on the fact that we have kale growing everywhere in our garden. Next to flowers, among the blueberries, and in any free spot where we can fit it. We probably don’t even need to really plant any this spring because so much comes up on it’s own, but we’ll definitely be planting more. You can never have too much kale.

We didn’t get around to trimming off the old hydrangea flowers in the fall. I think they look beautiful now, with the old petals all see-through and wispy. They look like tiny fairy wings to me. I guess Bracken’s love for insects is becoming known because the lady at the post office gave him a moth. (Or rather, asked him to please remove it from the building and bring it back outside. Maybe we told her about Butterfly World, I don’t remember.) He kept the moth in a container for a bit (the mesh one awaiting his butterflies, they are caterpillars right now) and then let it out on our front porch that night.

Do you like our garden decor? I like to joke to myself that the look we’re going for is “rustique.” (Ha!) A rusty wagon wheel a neighbor gave us, a rusty old bed frame serving as a garden fence, and just plain ol’ rusty fences. There’s definitely a theme going on. We have a few concrete garden statues– a gnome by the blueberries, Buddha by the pond, and St. Francis by the grape arbor. St. Francis had fallen over this winter due to moles digging underneath the concrete block we set him on. We got him set upright once more. Don’t get me started on those moles! Every year I’m excited to see the new buds on the blueberry bushes, dreaming of the berries ahead, but the moles dig so badly under the roots it can be a challenge to keep our blueberry bushes alive.

Our honeyberries are coming back!! They weren’t doing very well last year (hello moles) and we had three growing at one point, but now we’re down to two. We weren’t sure if those two were even going to make it, though, so we’re happy to see them alive and doing well. We’re all very curious about honeyberries and want to try them. Bracken is still very excited about his pink blueberry (like he has been for the past few years.) It’s his very own plant he picked out of the catalog, so he’s proud of it, and has been exclaiming over the new buds.

The poor chickens are back in their yard, no more free ranging in the garden for them. They did a wonderful job cleaning the garden up in the fall and winter, but now it’s time to let the garden grow. Bracken has been taking a little colander that lives in the garden and filling it with all kinds of greens to make salads for them. He sets the colander in their yard and they gather all around it, gobbling up every bit.  (But they left the dandelion flower on top and he said “Why chickens?! That’s the best part!”) They get buckets full of weeds and when the season gets going and we start weeding the garden like crazy, they get wheelbarrow loads, so they’ll be fine.

I took another picture of that tiny yellow flower in the woods. I couldn’t help myself. That sweet little flower just pulls us in. The next day, it had fallen over and Bracken tried to prop it up, to no avail. If another one pops up, I’m sure Bracken will be the one to notice it.