APRIL SHOWERS -- HOW DO YOU TURN THEM OFF???

April showers bring May flowers.  But this April has been a little too much.

The weather man hasn't figured out how to turn off the showers.  Our friend Tim, who raises black angus cows, sows crops on both his farm and our farm. Our farm is actually a "working" farm, Tim does the work.  Jerry and I try to keep up with all the other stuff.

By this time I normally have my flower beds (at last count - 9) fairly well cleaned off, getting ready to plant spring seedlings, then ordering the mulch (I use anywhere from 5 - 7 yards of black mulch, delivered to my house on top of the hill, dumped on very very large tarps that are spread in the yard).

It takes me about 2-3 days to shovel the mulch into my garden cart and spread  on the flower beds, but they do look nice when I am done.

Not this year.  So far I have had enough nice weather to get ONE bed ready.

Only 8 more to go.  The clean-up isn't hard, just takes time.  What I don't have is time without rain, or wind, or thunder, or lightning, or anything else the weather man feels like throwing at me.

When the yard is mowed and the flowers growed this is what it looks like. 

Once the spring clean-up is finished, and the mulch layed, there is very little up-keep involved.



A 3 tier bed outside by our patio


This 3 tiered bed was built in 2007 by son Jerry and daughter Linda, who just happened to be home from Arizona on "vacation" .  Upon completion they both swore there would never never never be another one of these built.

It is beautiful, one of the first things you see as you come to the top of our driveway. 

But the amount of work is unbelievable, especially a 3 tier one, with the first tier being 4 feet off the ground, as our yard has a steep slope.

The folks we bought the place from had horses, hence the hitching rail.  Jerry wanted to remove the rail, I was able to convince him to leave it.

This is how the hitching rail looks now in the spring when the Irisis bloom.  Do you see the bluebird on top of the thingy that shows the direction of the wind.  And we do get wind.

So, one bed down, 8 more to go.  I would like to be finished before I leave for Boston on May 11.  Have a grandson graduating from college in Paxton Mass. on Saturay May 14.  So hopefully the weather man will cooperate with me the next few days. 

I grew up with parents who had flowers everywhere, and I guess It rubbed off.  You don't realize how much does rub off until you are older and can see where you got your ideas.  You can't always take credit for whatever.

So enjoy the rain, the sun when it shines, and the flowers it brings.  To all things there is a season.  This is the season of renewing, so enjoy and God Bless.