Five Acres with a View

My farrier was here to trim the horses, and after I paid her, we stopped and checked my garden beds as I walked out with her. I hadn’t looked at them recently, because March is really too soon to expect much at 7200 feet in Colorado. I had wondered if I should start watering though.

We found lots of signs of life: the rose bushes look like they are alive, the columbines have little crowns growing through the earth and look quite healthy, and most of the herbs are starting to grow. I was most surprised to see that the dianthus (pinks) seem to be coming back. I bought them as annuals, and although some of my friends say their dianthus reappears, I had low expectations since our conditions are so harsh here. Of course, it was a mild winter. I am most excited about the columbines: they are the Colorado state flower, and gorgeous in their own right.

Right now, I am watering the beds, and day-dreaming about annuals. The salvia I planted last year did poorly, but the petunias did quite well. I am not too proud to plant petunias again. I could put them in front of the rose bed, and plant something else where I planted the petunias last year. Updated 2003-03-28 Changed peonies to petunias. What was I thinking?

At first, I thought The Radioactive Boy Scout sounded like satire when I heard a discussion on NPR this morning. However, evidently a boy scout set out to build a homemade nuclear reactor in a backyard shed.