of birds and bees

I've been out in the garden working this last week, right along with the honeybees.  Everything is growing, and all the perennials are coming up, the fruit trees are budding, and the vegetable seeds are just starting to come up.  Spring has sprung here in the Northwest.  The song of the Robin fills the air in the mornings and evenings.  Their song is my favorite of all the birds we have here.  The melody and harmony, and the solo's they sing...  I love waking to their song and working alongside them in the garden. Spring is their time of year, they mate in March and have their young in mid/late spring.  We have watched nests of babies grow and fly away, most likely to be back next year.   The frogs have also begun their evening chorus, we have Spring music from nature to enjoy.

The weeding of the flower and vegetable beds is a tedious job, done better by me than anyone else.  I can identify seedlings and young plants that no one else in our family could identify, so I gladly do it.  The peonies I bought about 20 years ago, and have moved with me everywhere I've gone.  They are meaningful to me and one of my favorites.  I had 10 large peony plants and divided all of them last year, and I gave them their own rows to multiply in (in the vegetable garden so I can take good care of them).  So the entrance to my garden has beautiful flowers in one large bed, along with flowers and edibles along the perimeter of the garden. 

Past the big rock where the contemplative monkey sits, and through the path, my gardens are on the left.  It has concrete posts, and is having a wooden entry gate being built.  We (my husband) are also planning to build several wooden trellises, along with some gates and benches to be built over time.  Each project takes time, and function often comes before beauty.  In the garden our first order of events was to deer proof it with good strong, tall fencing.  Once this was accomplished I had a palate to design with vegetable, herbs, fruits and berries.