April flowers soaked by May showers equal early fruits

May’s warmth arrived in April. The April rains have soaked the first week of May. It’s all so confusing, but the plants like it. The plums are ripening about three weeks earlier than they were least year. The first strawberries have set fruit about two weeks earlier. And a brand new pink columbine popped up […]

First flowers herald plum blossoms

First flowers are opening everywhere. The first forsythia. The first periwinkle. The first tulips. Even the first white puff of the cloud of craziness that the plum tree is preparing to unfold. Yesterday, while I was outside admiring the flowers, a downy woodpecker came to visit the feeders It flew almost directly at me, only […]

What grows on trees

In all the wet weather, I haven’t seen many bees. A few bumblebees, the occasional miner bee, and not even all that many honeybees. But little by little, they got the job done.

Plum blossom one

Spring this year is coming rather leisurely. But here’s the first plum blossom. All we need now is for that bitter wind to calm down and let the sun shine on the bees.

A Plenitide of Pluripotential Plums

The plum tree that flowered so enthusiastically bent over under the weight of its fruits. I think every single flower set fruit. That exact same branch with all those flowers was drooping the deepest. The whole tree looked it was going to break.

Low Hanging Fruit

When you plant semi-dwarf trees, everything is low-hanging fruit.

Plum Blossoms!

Plum Blossoms! Plum Blossoms! Plum Blossoms! Plum Blossoms!

Plum bud jam

We’ve been getting some nicer weather lately, fine sunny days, scorching hot, up in the 50s, even. So it was time to climb up the hill and see what we’ve got.

Flower power–wow!

Yesterday my tulip patch were all green buds, with only a hint of color. Today, thanks to our spring heat wave, they just exploded. These are my favorites, bright yellow with red flames, a small part of a mix of Darwin hybrids, which have been coming back, better and better every year.

First fruits

Here’s the first batch of daffodils cut. They’re now on my desk, exuding so much soapy scent, I’m sneezing. And my fruit trees arrived!