Seasonal Celebrations & Lessons Learned

Spring is in the air. Nature is bursting everywhere.

Plum Tree

Today I am joining a new meme, Seasonal Celebrations, hosted by Donna at Gardens Eye View and Lessons Learned with Beth at Plant Postings. The idea of Seasonal Celebrations is to take a look at the seasonal changes in gardens around the world and how they are celebrated. Lessons Learned is a meme which looks back at the lessons your garden has taught you this past season.

Seasonal Celebrations ~ 

Spring comes early to the South. In my garden the daffodils start their parade in February.

 

The Kwansan cherry trees are show stoppers in my February garden. The International Cherry Blossom Festival also known as the PINKEST party on earth showcases 300,000 Yoshino cherry trees. It is held in March in Macon, Georgia every year. This year is the 30th anniversary celebration .

The azaleas begin to bloom in March and there is no better place to celebrate them than Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia. The azalea bowl captures the best blooms in a serene woodland setting.

Including many native species.

The goldfinches are putting on their brighter summer suits. (Correction: this is a warbler ~ thanks to Eve's keen observation!)

And the hunt for the perfect nesting site begins.

Spring is in full swing in March. Everyday there are new arrivals to the party. Please head over the Gardens Eye View to read how other gardeners celebrate their season.

Lessons Learned ~


My winter garden has shown me the importance of structural elements during the barren months. I am looking to add more shrubs and trees  to add color for the gardener, food for the birds and blooms for the early pollinators.

Mother Nature has been very unpredictable this winter bringing warmer days and then some shockingly cold ones.  Our high this winter was 78 degrees and our low was 19 degrees. It is hard for the body to adjust to such fluctuations. Many of the plants in my garden feel the same way as they didn't take too kindly to those freezing nights. At least the plants and the gardener are on the same page on this subject.

With the milder winter we have been able to start many of our garden projects. The first of 5 new raised beds in the kitchen garden has been built.

  5' x 20'

Our old garden boxes were a real chore to install because of the slope so this time around we decided to hire a professional to build them. You can see how severe the slope  actually is with the height differential between the two ends of the bed. It will be nice not to have to bend over all the time when working in the kitchen garden!

There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day for the garden. There are still so many chores to be tackled...like pruning 60 rose bushes. A task that I don't look forward to. Thank goodness it only has to be done once a year.

Stop by Plant Posting to learn what other gardeners have learned this season.