Spring Garden Colour

 I started some woad seeds a few weeks ago.  The seedlings took forever to germinate.  The weather however has been generally cold and wet, with tons of wind.  I put the seedlings outside on the  few good days, but when it was hovering at just above freezing, with rain, winds and egads, even snow and ice, I had to keep them inside.  They started getting leggy, so much that I worried the stems would break. They were much smaller than I'd have liked, but I got the cheap plastic cloches from storage, prepped the bed and planted the woad seedlings out.  Of course this week the weather is supposed to be well below normal in temperatures, with frosts and possibly some snow.   I think I'll have to cover them at nights, just to help them out a bit.  I left a couple of plants from last year to go to seed for future harvests.

The lettuce and peas that I direct planted in March are now coming up!  They do like this cooler weather.  I'll plant more lettuce seeds in a couple of weeks for multiple harvests.

 The Scilla is starting to grow out to carpet the lawn in the spring. It is so beautiful with that blue colour.  I'd wanted to do this by planting Crocus bulbs through the grass,but hubby wasn't impressed by that idea.  This however is happening courtesy of Mother Natures, so I'm not complaining and he's putting up with it.

The black currant bush is starting to flower.  I had issues with the European black currants that I'd planted when we first moved in.  They would flower early, we'd have a few cold days and the flowers would drop off before they were pollinated.  Thus I had huge, healthy bushes and never any fruit.   My son dug those up for me and I replaced them with North American currants, a similar plant but supposed to be much hardier.  Last year I had a handful of tasty berries which I ate off the bush.  This year it seems to be loaded.  I hope the weather this week doesn't harm the flowers.   There is a volunteer currant bush on the other side of the yard, which is at a similar stage of development.   I'm hoping it's a black currant bush too.  The red currants aren't flowering yet, so fingers are crossed.

The hyacinths are blooming.   It's been such a cold and windy spring that there hasn't been one of those warm, still days where I can sit out on the deck and just enjoy the hyacinth scent.   No days like that in the next week or so weather forecast though.  I hope the blooms may last long enough for at least one cup of tea with hyacinth perfume wafting through the air.