The weather is not cooperating

We got another inch and a half of rain that we didn't need, plus two nights with temperatures below freezing, at the end of March, so I haven't been able to get anything planted in the vegetable garden.

We did have several nice days between bad spells earlier that allowed me to get the paths mulched and the beds topped off with more compost.  With a little luck and sunshine, in a couple of days, I should be able to plant lettuce and carrots, since they are essentially sprinkled on the top of the ground and raked in.  And hopefully I'll also be able to plant peas and beets in shallow furrows.  Normally, I would already have all those things sown, and the peas and lettuce even coming up.

This year, I mulched the paths with shredded cypress.  I had been using red-dyed hardwood mulch, which is prettier when fresh, but costs about twice as much.  And since it's only prettier for such a short while, I decided it wasn't worth it.  For a bonus, the cypress was also easier to spread.

I'm lucky to have a generous neighbor who farms cattle and composts the manure - a generous neighbor, who gave me a pickup load of three-year-old compost to spread. 

I literally stumbled across a way to easily break up the larger clumps.  If this is something everyone but me was already wise to, skip the next four pictures.  Otherwise, here's what I discovered:

Using a hard rake (not a leaf rake), like this one:

Rake up the clumps onto the tines, like so:

Then take your foot and, applying slight pressure, scrape back and forth once or twice across the clumps on top of the tines.

Voila!  Fine crumb soil!

Note:  This won't work if there's a high clay content in your soil.  That will just coat your rake tines and stick to the bottom of your shoe.  Otherwise, what a toil-saver.  I can't believe I spent the last four years hammering away at stubborn clumps with the back side of the rake, or stabbing at them with a shovel, and still not coming up with such nice texture.  Old dogs can indeed learn new tricks.

Most of the roses have started to leaf out, but there's not much to look at in the rose garden yet.

The new tulip bed is coming up.  Little grape hyacinth (Muscari) planted there have popped open their doors to let in the sunshine.

That's it for now.  We're in a bit of a holding pattern, hoping we're finally seeing the back side of old man winter.  And, as a footnote follow-up to the last post, I was indeed able to leave the rhubarb plants uncovered in spite of the freeze, since they hadn't grown so high above the ground to be injured.  Probably the fact that the freezing temps were in the wee hours of the morning instead of late at night helped as well, since it wasn't long until the sun came out.  Thankfully, everything that was up even 4-6 inches (eg. daffodils, columbine, chives and herbs) hunkered down for the night and came through unharmed.

One last thing:  my daughter-in-law sent me a picture of some beautiful lilies my son got her for her birthday.

She said my son told her they were like people who have two rows of teeth, which kind of spoiled it for her. 😂  But I couldn't resist.  I ordered some from Michigan Bulb Company:  Double stargazers.

image from Michigan Bulb Company website

I did a little research and found out they're bred as clones from a mutant stargazer whose stamens failed to form, becoming an extra set of petals instead.  They have no stamens, so no pollen.  

And, while I was at it, I ordered a pure white Oriental lily as well.  And a fern.

I've got to stop.