We went to the land yesterday – the snow was gone, the fish were jumping, and the spring peepers were out. The kids did some fishing.

There were also animal holes and tunnels everywhere.   A lot of the lumps and tunnels were caused by the stupid groundhogs that we have out there.  But there were [...]

Our house is on a typical city lot, not tiny, but not too big.  There’s an alley to the side, and without a fence we have a view of the back of a convenience store.
Five years ago or so, we had a landscape designer (Johnstone and Associates) draw us up some plans for the backyard. [...]

Hello snowdrops
What a big difference in one week.

I was just looking at the Clatter Valley Gardens website, which I found when looking for which of the ‘girl’ magnolias was most tree-like.  He has the most gorgeous gardens.  They are in Connecticut –  but very lush, almost tropical, lots of color.

So beautiful. I need to plant some more magnolias around the patio.   [...]

I like to start more seeds than is reasonable, so Alex built me this light stand a few years ago.  It uses cheap shop lights, and regular florescent bulbs.
I like to start my seeds in the APS 40 units from Gardener’s Supply.  They are great for getting the plants started, since you can bottom water [...]

We went to the land today.  It was 45 degrees outside.
It is still a little frozen out there.

I expected the pond to be more thawed out, but the ice is thick.

The vegetable garden is under icy snow.
But if you look up:

The silver maple flower buds are swelling.

I went outside yesterday looking for signs of spring in the backyard.
I got nothin’.   The ground is frozen solid an inch and a half down.