It's A Dirt-y Job, and It's Great

Although we've been having a much warmer-than-usual spring, my rational side knows that I shouldn't plant things out in our yard until after around the first of May. With that in mind, yesterday I finally got around to buying some marigold seeds and potting soil so that I could get them started in the house.

In the meantime, though, I've been going out most mornings and checking the entire yard and garden. Our tulips are blooming around the yard, and the irises are going gangbusters. The clematis are starting to shoot up, and the shrubbery (a word which really has to be said with a Monty Python accent) are leafing and growing.

I'm especially excited to say that the lilac in the sheltered corner of the yard is taking off this spring. It's the second spring in the yard for the lilac (it came in during the summer of 2008, I believe), and this year it's really taking off. Most of the stalks have shot up at least 6 inches, already, and - for the first time - we have buds showing up. Yes. That's right. This year we'll have lilac blooms!

Our other excitement is that we've got a bunch of new plantings in the yard which were transplants from Missouri - brought to us by a friend of ours. We're really not sure where everything is in the yard, but I've spotted a few new lilies coming up that don't match our old ones. I can't wait to see what the spring and summer bring.

And, with that in mind, I spent some time putting marigold seeds into little fiber pots and watering them. They'll be in the basement window for the next week or two, then - depending on the weather - they'll go out into the breezeway or into the ground. Then, in about a month, we should have great blooming bunches.

In the meantime, I'll have to live with the springtime scent of the dirt.