I Am A Dirty Dirty Girl

I just came in from doing yard work and I'm once again covered head to toe in dirt.  I'm sweaty and stinky and I have mud smeared on my face.  I love it!!  I think I should have been born a farmer...

With the calendar showing just mid-March it almost feels too early for any real gardening but yesterday we hit the 70 degree mark for the first time this year.  The radio weatherman this morning promised it again today... but he lied!  It's windy and chilly and there's already full cloud cover for the next approaching storm front.  He said the horrifying words "back into the 40's for Sunday and Monday."  I hope he lied about that, too!

Around the yard things are beginning to sprout and show signs of life.

I pulled back the leaves that had packed themselves in around the Chives late last fall so they could get some light and air.  Hopefully next week I'll get back out to this bed to rip out the Balloon Flower vines that have crawled back through the fence from next door and do some heavy (and long overdue) pruning on the rose bushes.

The Eqyptian Walking Onions are already up and growing well.  The weeds are doing really well, too.

And the Rhubarb is doubling in size just about everyday!  I swear a couple of days ago it looked like a pile of pink Easter eggs with those funky bulby sprouts and now they've uncurled into good sized leaves.  I need to get the mulch down here very soon.

Most of the trees and the grapevines have leaf and/or flower buds swelling.  This is the Apricot tree.  With a few days of crappy weather in the forecast, I guess it's a good thing I'm allergic to apricots and won't be too heart broken if it gets caught in a frost like last year.  Actually last year it wasn't the frost that killed the buds... it scared the bees back into their hives so nothing got pollinated.  Hence the fruitless year.

So far so good this year.  Even the plants indoors are doing great.  You might remember awhile back I tried my hand at starting some  Tomato and Pumpkin seedlings.  My house was a cold 58F all winter and I didn't give them any supplemental heat to get going so they were very slow in coming up but counting the ones that are barely breaking ground, and I am,  I've got 100% success.  For now, I've taken the lid off the plastic container and mist them lightly morning and night to keep moisture levels pretty even.  And they sit in the kitchen window soaking up all the light and afternoon sun they can get.  Next week, when the weather warms up again and they start to get true leaves, I plan on putting them outside for a bit each day gradually working the time up.  And then I'll have to choose which seedling lives to go in the garden and give the rest a quick clip with the scissors.  I've been so pleased with this experiment that I'm planting sunflower seeds in a smaller strawberry container this afternoon.

And finally... even dirty girls need pretty things!  This is one of the big pink Hyacinth in the very beat up front flower bed.  I'm so glad it survived all the digging and getting stepped on last summer.  Waiting to see what else may have survived is hard... I so want to get this bed back to looking good!

I've linked this post to the Farmgirl Friday Bloghop #49 at White Wolf Summit Farmgirl.

And to the link party at No Ordinary Homestead.