dispatches from the concrete patch

As work continues to stress me out & Dublin continues on bein’ wet & cold, let’s take a moment to look at this.

Signs of life in the mismatched pots. I can't tell you how happy these tiny bits of color make me right now.

Those are bird's eye glimpses of my crocus, hyacinth & tulip bulbs making their presence known.
This is how the concrete garden was looking last Saturday. Bathed in rare sunlight & perhaps a harbinger of spring? Maybe. (Though I woke up to a light dusting on the neighbors' cars this morning, so maybe not yet.)

Hydrangea buds.

Mini mini carrot.

And inside the homestead...

Saturday sun shining on a tin can full of flower seeds. And a succulent arrangement I made that reminds me of my wedding.
So... spring has sprung… almost.
Would you believe it snowed later that night?

i defy you, laptop

It's a hectic day at work today, but at least it's Friday. So I have a late wake up call, some yoga & general pottering around to look forward to tomorrow.

To pass the day today, I'm fantasizing about surrounding myself in vast quantities of spring bulbs. As the teensiest of green starts to poke its way out of my many mismatched pots out in the concrete patch, my bulb fever is coming back with a vengeance. I'm just browsing because really how many pots can I *actually* have out there? Plus, the ones I'm waiting on are my first ever & I hear they're tough, so maybe my heart will be broken come spring.

For now, hope springs eternal - is that how the saying goes?

Isn't that a pretty sight? Imagine that greeting you some chilly spring morning. (That's what we have here, chilly spring mornings, most likely covered with drizzle.)

I hadn't really considered planting MORE bulbs, having already gone a little bulb crazy in the fall. I always relate bulbs to fall. But if I coul d possibly have beauties like this in my garden, I'd happily go bulb-mad again & get some more dirt under my nails.

concrete garden update

I don't know if I have good news or bad news - I just know I haven't written about my gardening adventures in a while.
We were gone for nearly a month & the weather was changing pretty dramatically at that time. Needless to say, things were looking pretty wild when I got back. Bulbs seem to be popping up already (anyone who knows - is this normal?) The things that were dying are definitely dead, except those stupid tomatoes refuse to move. We got two decent ones out of the whole lot. The rest just teased me, hanging on in mini green form, then stalemating. I'm over it though.
I think I screwed up my first attempts at growing vegetables in containers, unfortunately. Could this be the result of not thinning properly?
Introducing, the World's Saddest Carrot! This is, believe it or not, a vast improvement on the "onions" I was supposed to be growing in another pot. I pulled out a tester and there ain't nuthin' down by the roots. Smells like an onion though.
According to the seed packaging, these two items should be ready for harvesting NOW. I'll leave things a while longer. Maybe it's all this climate changing going on that means you can't trust the standard growing times anymore. (Climate change? But isn't that all a myth anyway? ;)
Well, one good thing is the late blooming hydrangea. Seems she had one more ruffly bundle to offer before retiring for the winter. How nice.
So, it's a mixed bag for the moment. Some dead stuff, some things growing slower than expected, and then some green life popping up & making its tentative debut in the world. Here's to the new year! I hope it's full of onions, carrots & pretty spring flowers.