The Manifesto of Steph~: April Showers!

Despite the wet and crazy weather we've had these past few weeks, this month has been all about gardening. I will include lots of pictures at the end of all this. I cleaned out all of our flowerbeds which involved weeding out about a trash barrel full of grape hyacinth plants and bulbs (not exaggerating). Yuck! I also planted some begonias, a peony, some violas and pansies, some dahlias (including one named "Mr. Optimist"...which Jason found funny), bleeding hearts, columbine, hostas, and lily of the valley. My bleeding heart and columbine from last year are also survived the winter as well as two anemone plants I thought had died right after I planted them. If I'm lucky the snapdragons will also re-emerge like they did last year. My goal is to have lots of perennials that will continue to do well. (I will take suggestions!) Inside we've set up quite the grow operation. Our tomatoes look amazing, although we are met with the task of trying to "harden" them off so they survive outside. Interestingly enough all the 'how to' sites tell you it's pertinent to harden off seedlings that you start indoors, however no one gives you specific instructions on how to do this. I've also got marigolds that are looking pretty beefy (I noticed today one has a bloom started), some sunflowers I started way too early, three varieties of zinnia, snapdragons, coneflowers, and a couple of delphinium. Some of the seeds I started inside this year were a bit of an experiment just to see how they would start and transplant. So far the marigolds, zinnia, and tomatoes look promising...though some of the others are just too small to tell yet.

In other news, Jason is getting prepared to go to Cambodia/Singapore for 10 days, after which at least one of us will be done with grad school! Work for both of us has been busy--Jason is working mandatory overtime as part of tax season, and I have been working some Saturdays to help a fellow co-worker/student collect her thesis data.

Congrats to Weston and Katie on their wedding coming up very soon! Good luck to Misty and Curtis as they soon start their new adventure in Boston. Congrats also to Carrie and Jesse on the upcoming family addition later this year!

And now…the pictures…

Lawn Seeing Before (Last Fall)