Outside at last

After two weekends away it was great to get out in the yard.The work was mostly boring stuff -- raking leaves, picking up twigs and acorns and replacing broken bricks in the patio -- but we got a lot done. Removing the leaves from the perennial beds, we came across a lot of daylilies, hostas and other plants just beginning to poke out of the ground. The pulmonaria -- which will be blooming in about three weeks -- has good-looking variegated leaves showing already. I heard a neighbor about four houses away rototilling his vegetable garden. I've given up tilling, but I still think it was too early to be working the soil, especially after all the rain we have had in April. And we are supposed to get more rain today and tomorrow followed by a short dry spell until the weekend -- depending on which forecast you listen to. That's when I am hoping to use the U-bar to loosen our soil and get some vegetables growing. Stay dry and look to the future. Oh, yes, I almost forgot. Sunday's column is some thoughts on interesting native plants from Patrick Chasse, a landscape architect based on Mount Desert Island.