Spring is here, whether we’re ready or not! Having missed the January and February gardening catalog extravaganza due to travels, we were delighted to return home and find that the first of the 1,000 crocus bulbs I was forced by Pajamadeen to plant in the front yard are finally blooming. On a fine, sunny day — unlike recent cold, damp and downright dreary days — we photographed them.

Our dwarf nectarine tree seems happy with its new home. We bought it last fall from Miller Nurseries, an upper New York State nursery, on the theory that if it could survive there, it could survive here (despite the county agricultural extension office once telling Pajamadeen that nectarines won’t grow here). Crops we’re eating include New Zealand spinach and kale, an ignored vegetable which is quite tasty chopped up in a salad, as well as parsley and chives. Swiss chard is up, and onions are about 6 inches tall. We can’t wait to show you pictures of the Monarda (beebalm). The red Jacob Kline has limped along in the west sun of the front yard. We planted some in a northern area of the backyard. A member of the mint family, this perennial loves wet feet, and there seem to be dozens of the plants coming up where we let them self-seed last fall.

Photography ended with the sudden appearance of this thunderstorm, which led to high winds and a tornado warning. No tornado, and we’re still here. At left front, you can see the pruned pink butterfly bush and, at right front, is a more traditional purple butterfly bush, as yet unpruned. In the background stands an eyesore, a sadly mutilated and now deceased maple tree. Why do people do this?!!!

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Colorful, low-maintenance perennial flowers.