It's Spring!

The robins' return marks the first day of spring at our house; This morning I saw them hopping along the sunny part of the yard for the first time this year. They appeared at work two weeks ago, but thanks to the hill and our north-facing microclimate, everything in our yard is delayed. It's amazing, I swear you gain a USDA zone just going around the block. The tulips and daffodils started emerging a week ago now, and even the daylilies are poking their heads out of the ground. Strangely no sign of the crocus yet - they usually beat all comers, even poking out of the snow some springs. I guess it's time to come out of winter hibernation and start pruning and fertilizing the garden.

Another sign of spring: the squirrels are awake again and after the bird feeders. Anyone has a good way to squirrel-proof birdfeeders, I'm all ears. They are masters of creative skullduggery. One of these days I'm going to resort to an air rifle...

In response to this vernal upwelling of life, I just planted in flats two gross of seeds (mostly daylily hybrids, focusing on new spider and double forms) from last season’s garden. A separate weblog thread is under construction for all things daylily, including tracking the fate of these hybrids. As soon as I have the final build I will link it in here.