Four varieties of lilac
The skies may be gray and temperatures cool, but spring marches on and blooms give ample reason to head outdoors. I admit, I tend to be a fair weather gardener. Cloud and drizzle leave me heading for a comfy chair and a good book. Really great spring flowers can pull me outdoors, however, and the lilac is in bloom.
Brown turkey fig
Once outdoors, I always realize that it isn’t really that cold and the rain isn’t that heavy so I invariably putter around and find a few things to do. Weeding is super easy when the ground is damp so I invariably pull a few giant weeds. Puttering also offers an opportunity to just generally check things out and see how the various plants are progressing.
A few weeks ago, I bought and planted in a very large pot a brown turkey fig tree. This variety of fig is supposed to be the variety best suited for the cooler Pacific Northwest. Figs are interesting because the fruits appear before the leaves do. I’ve never seen this on a tree before. I know nothing about figs so it will be interesting to see how this does. In the last few weeks it has leafed out quite a bit and seems to be doing generally fine.
Cukes, squash, and watermelon
Coming back indoors, I take a look at the cucumbers, squash, and watermelon I have under grow lights. Mostly, they are all doing well. I do have a few weaklings in the set though.
Cukes, the good and the bad
The two pots of cucumbers above should be living identical lives. They are from the exact same packet of seeds planted on the exact same day growing under the exact same lights and getting the exact same amount of water. But they aren’t exactly the same. Sometimes, it is just a mystery.
On a personal note, I’ve been feeling a bit like the cucumber seedlings on the left about my work life. Something just wasn’t working for me anymore. So I left my job this week. I’m still at the same company, but I walked away from a role that used to be really great for me but no longer was. I’m hoping that my next role will have me feeling much more like the cucumbers on the right, healthy and poised for growth.
The lilac is in bloom and I’m stopping to smell it. I hope you are too.
Sandy
The 10 Year Challenge 
Oh how I envy your lilacs. I have a huge lush lilac bush, wish a single bloom his year. I’ve never had more than 4 blooms a year. Last year I plants 4 new lilac bushes, and Hubster’s lawn mower manager to eat them all…
I simply adore lilacs. They are truly one of my favorite flowering shrubs. The irony of that – is that I do not have a one on the place!
I hope your job switch will do the trick for you. It’s a hard thing to step out of the familiar to do something different but my experience has been that it always was worth the act of bravery to make the change.
Sandy, hopefully your new position will feel like spring once you settle in – a new beginning with summer just around the corner.
And isn’t it so rewarding to pull out huge weeds effortlessly this time of year? I find it as gratifying as I do vacuuming up a monster dust bunny. Out with you eyesore.