Spring Weather

We need a good two-day soaker rain.  The gardens are dry and my lawn is looking a little spotty.  We have been threatened with rain for the past few days, but as usual the weatherman has not delivered.  Today is lovely and warm, but clouds are moving in and the sky is starting to look a little threatening.  Tomorrow the temperature is supposed to hover around the freezing point, and the weatherman is threatening us with snow. 

Our neighbourhood is a relatively flat area at the top of a hill overlooking the bay.  We get a lot of high winds when the weather changes dramatically, and as I type this the wind is beginning to pick up.  There are a lot of mature trees surrounding our houses, and they really wave and sigh in the wind.  Quit often we can't keep our windows open at night because the sound of the trees is so loud and dramatic we can't sleep.  Because the temperature is going to drop so drastically, I expect we will get a lot of wind tonight.

Actually, the forecast for the entire week threatens rain.  We are on a roller coaster for temperature, from today's high swooping to tomorrow's cold temperature and then back to warm again for a couple of days and then back to seasonal norms.  As long as we get a good solid rain along with the temperature swings, it will be worth it.  We didn't get the snow base we needed to set our water table this winter, and if we don't get a long steady rainfall for a couple of days we will be watering our gardens far too often as summer comes.  That leads to watering restrictions, which seems ironic when our city is built around a bay.

I am not planning many changes to our garden this year, although we have had 3 trees removed, and there will be far more sunshine in our back yard.  I want to watch how the light levels have changed, and how our existing gardens react, before adding anything.  I need to work on a buffer between our yard and the people behind us, because we removed two evergreen trees.  I think I'll start by planting Virginia creeper and training it to grow on the chain link fence between our houses.  That should give us privacy for the summer months, and buy some time for us to make additional plans.

There is an enormous blue spruce tree directly behind us, and the very rear of our yard is totally barren as a result.  No grass will grow under it, and although previous owners of our house tried a variety of ground covers, their noble experiment failed.  The ground covers have colonized our front and rear lawns, but not where we want them to be.  I have spent many hours digging unwanted ground cover out of my gardens and lawn, but it has been a losing battle.  Introducing Virginia creeper may be  huge mistake if it decides to grow on the ground rather than vine along the fence, but I know Virginia creeper is really tough and I'm hoping that it can survive the harsh conditions where I want it to be.  Keep your fingers crossed.