spring trees

spring days

spring coming up
moss
first honey bee
lenten rose

one week later the vernal equinox

(this picture is from 2009, garden quince and tulips)

March 19, It has been a wonderful week in Chicago, with the temperatures making it in to the 60's so many gardens have come alive. I watch the first barometer that I see every spring, the grand paper birch out my window. The sap rising in the tree has made the catkins come alive and just as we are to get a cold burst of wintery weather again this weekend this tree has announced it is spring. I have seen many of the gardens alive with crocus and snowdrops, and even a garden with red and yellow tulips blooming(but i am sure some landscape company just planted these last week). I have hear the roar of leaf blowers and maintenance crews working to clean up the remnants of winter. We have been pruning shrubs and perennials back, tree pruning comes next, wanting to see the structure of the plant before the leaves emerge , this is a great time of year to do this. soon it will be time to seed the bare spots in the grass and start placing annuals in the baskets... I have feelings this may be a warmer season than last, as it should be, but also much drier. I think watering will be an issue for many of the containers and newly planted.... we have a high water table now from the wet season last year and cooler temperatures, but as we all know that doesn't last very long...

With the spring equinox just hours away (March 20 1:35 am cst) one wonders what is this Vernal Equinox, well I wonder I am not so sure if anyone else really ponders this. The day and night is equal, the north and south poles are even with the sun passing over the equator directly. Our southern neighbours(south Americas) are celebrating the autumnal equinox, with festivals of harvest and the beginning of the winter season... the north Americas are celebrating the vernal equinox, the beginning of life, planting and enjoying longer daylight hours. So many traditions and customs have come from this season... again another reason we are all really the same... Christians celebrating Easter on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox, Egyptians celebrated and had placed their great sphinx so it directly faces the rising sun on the vernal equinox, The first day of spring also marks the beginning of Nowraz, the Persian New Year. The celebration lasts 13 days and is rooted in the 3,000-year-old tradition of Zoroastrianism. Just some of the celebrations celebrated at this time of the year by all people of the northern hemisphere world... on this day of the the equinox, I am hoping for all people to be equals , all things in life to be even and steady... if on any time of the year perhaps this is when we should set aside our differences and see the balance of life in each of us....

Happy Spring to you and yours...+

One Month Later

What a difference one month makes... as I look at the post from one month ago we had snow on the ground... (from a recent snow fall) and now here it is March 12 and it was upper 50's today...what a beautiful day... we made our way to the nursery the first time of the season, and planted some items in boxes today... it is starting earlier this season i thought ...then 6 hours later it is cooler and rainy and they are talking snow again in a week...well this is Chicago... sneeze and the weather changes...

MARCH MADNESS!!!!

We are back ... It is March 1 today, the weather is still winter like in Chicago, but we can see the light at the end of this long long winter ...yeah! The mornings are getting brighter earlier...the weather people are talking of warm up to the 50's by the weeks end... and I could tell the last snow we had was that heavy winter snow ..the kind that is usually one of the last snows of the season... here we lucked out with very minor snow storms ... here in Chicago we had a mild winter... we are ready to start the new season looking forward to a wonderful spring start....

Keep your eyes tuned here and watch what we are up to ... as I become more computer savvy I will post more exciting pictures and maybe even a movie or two...

I wish you all a beautiful spring ( to those of you living north) and a beautiful autumn to those of you living in the south( as in south of the equator.... enjoy and happy gardening