Please excuse the missing month

I was all set to get back into gardening at the start of September, which is also the start of Spring. But before I could do anything else we got hammered by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake on September 4th 2010.

I'm not going to discuss the earthquake at length here, except to say that it was very traumatic, it put all thoughts of gardening out of my head, and a month later we are still getting powerful aftershocks.

The garden is now edging back into the picture and I did a little bit of cleanup at the weekend.

The strawberries are in bloom!

I dug compost into two of the beds in preparation for growing things. The tall bed will have potatoes and cucumbers just like it did last year, with some carrots in between (assuming they will grow well together -- I need to check my companion planting guide).

The low bed will have tomatoes and other salady things as yet undetermined. It already has pansies and another flower that didn't actually bloom last year, so I've forgotten what it is. Guess we'll find out later this season!

Spring is in the air

It has been a long, wet winter, but things are starting to look up at last. The mountains are still covered in snow and we are forecast some icy wind and rain for the next few days, but at least today was warm and sunny. The daffodils are showing themselves, the cherry trees are in full bloom, and the weeds are growing like crazy.

We have what I believe is a greengage tree in our garden. It is attracting bees at the moment, which I love to see. Bees are great.

We also have some variation of box tree which smells like cocoa butter when it's in bloom. Yum.

This chocolate-smelling-tree (as I call it in my head) is a real indication for me that summer isn't too far away, and if I get the chance to sit out on our deck in the sunshine and smell it wafting over me then I'm going to do just that. I've managed it for the last two years so let's hope I manage it this year as well. I can hardly wait!