Springtime plants and weather

Look at these clumps of oregano growing out on the edge of the vegetable garden plot. They're easy enough for Walt to mow around, I guess. Soon, we'll pick a bucketful of leaves and dry them so we can use oregano in sauces all year. You can see the oregano at the top of the photo below too. It grows under an apple tree, but gets full sun in the afternoon. It comes back up every spring.

Yesterday, I tilled the vegetable garden plot for the second time this spring. It was much easier to do this time, because the first pass with the tiller turned over all the matted-down dead leaves we had spread out there last November, and it also uprooted a lot of tenacious weeds. We're supposed to have rainy weather for the next few days. After that, I'll till the plot at least one more time before the end of May, when the plants go in.

The wisteria on the back of the house is blooming, but after its hard pruning last year it's not flowering as much and it's not as heavy as it used to be. We'll see what the rain will do to the flowers. I figured it was time to take a photo before it's too late.

We had a windy day yesterday, as the temperature dropped — the low this morning is in the upper 40s in ºF (below 10ºC). Look what the wind did to the blossoms on the flowering cherry tree out back. The lawn and path around the tree are carpeted in pink petals. The tree trunk right on the other side of the path is a big apple tree, and there are two other apple trees on the right side of the photo.

Finally, irises have started blooming. We had a hard rain shower or two yesterday afternoon, but the squalls were brief. Forecasts are for steadier rains over the coming weekend, especially on Sunday. We have four big patches of irises in the back yard, and I'm hoping we'll have a lot more flowers in May.