. . . . . . . aren't waiting until May this year, that's for certain!
Here it is Friday again - gosh this week has flown by.
Heavy rain during the storms of Wednesday evening, followed by
sunshine and mild temperatures all day Thursday, really started things
moving around the garden. . . . .even my two fig trees are showing green
leaves and teeny tiny figs! All this is quite lovely except for warnings
from the weather people that tonight and tomorrow there will be below
freezing temperatures!
Please, please don't damage our lovely plants, shrubs and trees
fickle Mother Nature.
Here's my potting shed yet again! The akebia quinata (or five leaf akebia) vine is
already climbing and twisting madly and its little bunches of purple chocolate scented
flowers are blooming.
It's also known as the chocolate vine and is a shrub native to Japan, China and Korea.
It has naturalized in the eastern United States and grows to 30 feet or more.
I keep mine trimmed somewhat as it's inclined to get a bit out out hand on the
shed, especially as I have a bluebird house there - not that they've nested in it yet,
they prefer the larger birdhouse in the front garden.
How beautiful - the start of a new crop of figs in Summer, hopefully!
Happy weekend hours. Whether sunny garden chores call. . . . . . . . or you
are still tucked up cosily in a warm place out of the winds, and perhaps
snow. . . . . .make each day count.
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Your garden is so lovely...it has that secret garden quality... Yes, this early spring business has a few concerned. It doesn't feel too early here today, but in a few days, things'll return to better weather. It is fun to see those figs already and the promise they hold. Hope that they are hardy fruits.
ReplyDeleteI've come back here three times this morning just to look at the greenery, Mary. And your shed....*love*. It looks like the perfect little retreat for those times you want to get lost in your thoughts. I just love it. I hope you do continue to have nice weather. It would be a shame to have any of those lovely buds freeze. Here, in Ontario, it is -10C this morning and I am just back in from filling feeders, throwing bread to the crows and nuts for the blue-jays. The chickadees are always first to the feeders as they so sweetly serenade me a I top up their seeds and nuts. They must be so confused here as earlier this week we had warmer temps and sun. I spotted a red-winged blackbird in the maple tree so Spring is not far off for we tough Canadians.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good one to remember Mary. Make each day count. I remember times in the gardens covering up plants with every sheet and blanket and towel in the house. No more.
ReplyDeleteI love your shed - I want to live in it, it looks so pretty and homely (at least from the outside)!
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful to already see so many buds and flowers and green leaves. We are still very much at the snowdrops-and-aconites stage here, but we're in for a warm, sunny day today and have had a little rain this week, so I expect there will soon be a noticeable difference in what the gardens and fields look like around here.
Having seen how Life and Things can change in an instant, "Make each day count" has great meaning to me and it is something I have to remind myself.. when bored and sitting online or just staring out at the forest behind my home. Get up and Do Something ! lol ...
ReplyDeleteThanks much, dear Mary, for your visit and sweet words.
ReplyDeleteJust click on my RECIPES button near the bottom of my blog for my mama's biscuit recipe. It is one of the best.
All the fruit trees are budding out here...hoping we don't get a hard freeZe.
What a pretty sight Mary, to see your fig tree sprouting and your chocolate vine looking so vigorous. Did your fig tree bloom early and did you have bees out to pollinate?
ReplyDeleteJust the other day a friend of mine stopped by with a little fig tree. I won't be able to grow it outside but hoping that it can overwinter in my greenhouse.
Gina, the fig tree has all female flowers and needs no cross-pollination by another tree or insects!
DeleteThere are no visible flowers but in mid-Spring (earlier here this year) its tiny greenish blossoms - a dozen or more - develop inside a receptacle called a synconium, which ripens as the season progresses, eventually becoming the tree's fruit, or fig!
These first figs in Spring on the new shoots are not as edible as the second major crop of late Summer - the ones we pick to make jam etc.
Isn't Nature just amazing?
Hope your little tree will thrive Gina dear.
Mary -
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the return to winter weather doesn't affect our early garden blooms. Amazing that your figs are already forming. Happy to see the sun out this morning and ready to take on the weekend. Hope yours is most enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteYour garden is just so awesome. I don't think I have seen that vine, but really love it. Oh figs!!!! How exciting! Still just dreaming here, but adding flowers inside the house to get me to spring time outdoors.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely LOVE the purple on your shutters there, Mary. Perfect backdrop colour for the chartreuse buds a lil leaves. I have to laugh how even back then in early March your garden has waaaay more blooms than anything around here now at the end of the month! lol.
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