Take a walk with me around our property. I think spring is holding her breath right now! We are finally free from snow piles, but the grass is just waiting to see if it’s safe to turn green. I walked up the hill to see if the forsythia was starting to bud out. From a distance, the plants have a slightly yellow cast, but the buds are still pretty tight.
The garden on the hill is also waiting…no new green shoots yet for the echinacea or the lavender. They are my bookends for the garden.
From the hill, I wanted to document the two Butternut trees. From this view, the tree on the right is the one that is dying. Last year it barely had leaves. Every time we have a windstorm limbs come down. It really looks pretty sad in the summer. In the next month or so, when it isn’t so muddy, Bert will cut it down and use the wood in the shop stove. When he does that, I’ll try to document the process.
You can see the various planters near the patio just waiting for spring planting!
The back of the shop has our compost tumblers. One is in active use and the other just gets tumbled. Bert will add that compost to some of the garden soil. It’s amazing how much stuff we put in there and at the end of the season there’s hardly anything in it but black ‘gold.’
The space to the left of the shop under the spouting is ready and waiting for Bert to set up the rain barrels. He waits until we stop having freezing weather…frozen water in the plastic barrels could crack the plastic. Without plants in the garden, we don’t need that water yet anyway.
Here’s another view of the Butternut trees. You can see the one on the left looks pretty straggly.
And finally, our group of Red Bud trees struggle every year but Bert keeps trimming the dead limbs. I’m sure the birds would not be happy if we lost those trees…it houses our bird feeders and bird bath that the deer also visit every night.
Not much to see yet, but plan to follow along with my posts about our Garden of 2026. We are ready!
If you have questions or comments, please email me directly at maryjkisner@gmail.com.
We anticipate that the predicted snow storm for this weekend will dump a significant amount of snow on us. I saw a picture on Facebook of the Blizzard of 1978. I remember that winter well…Ted was just turning two and Kathy was 3 months old. It felt like we didn’t go outside for a month! Our sidewalk looked like a tunnel, just like the street in the photo below:
Here is the caption for the photo:
Snowfall during the Blizzard of 1978 hit Pennsylvania with a wild regional split, backed by some eye-opening stats. Northwestern PA took the hardest punch, with Erie and the Lake Erie snowbelt piling up 20 to 30 inches, boosted by intense lake-effect bands. The Laurel Highlands and ridges of southwestern PA stacked 15 to 25 inches, with wind gusts topping 40 to 50 mph, creating drifts that climbed over 6 feet in spots. Central Pennsylvania averaged 10 to 18 inches, though open farmland saw whiteouts so severe that PennDOT reported hundreds of road closures. Southeastern PA saw lighter totals, generally 4 to 10 inches, but powerful winds and sub-zero wind chills created dangerous travel conditions and widespread disruptions. Overall, the storm remains one of the most chaotic and wind-driven winter events Pennsylvania endured during the late 1970s.
Hopefully, we have better methods of snow removal now but already various appointments are being postponed or cancelled for Monday!
Our preparations for the snow storm are not too complicated…mostly because we are already prepared for the power to go out. Bert handles things like the generator, the wood stove in the basement and the snow blower. I ran a load of laundry and tried to make sure we have what we need for food…although, other than milk and eggs we could probably skip a run to the store. The sun is shining right now and I wanted some apples, so I did run to the grocery store and picked up milk and eggs! (smile)
When bad weather is predicted, I seem to get in the mood to bake bread…but at the moment, I have enough homemade bread in the freezer. I did take a whole chicken out of the freezer and will roast it tomorrow. I’ll take the time to simmer the bones to make soup stock. Somehow, making soup stock feels like the right thing to do when we could be snowbound! Chicken noodle soup anyone?
I’ve found the best thing to do during a snowstorm is to dream about our 2026 garden plans. This year we did receive assorted seed catalogs…this is a picture from last year:
However, we did not get one from Burpee…our favorite Pennsylvania seed company. We kept waiting…but no catalog in the mail. It looks like we had to ‘request’ a catalog to be sent. Interesting. We ordered seeds online from them.
First, we had to consider our garden space, what we grew in the past and what worked. I know I have enough tomatoes and tomato sauce canned and will probably not need to do more this year so maybe fewer tomato plants. Our zucchini was fun but took up a lot of space. I can easily buy them at the Farmers Market when I’m in the mood. The cherry tomatoes were cute but the skins were tough (thanks to the weather) so we’ll skip them this year. The pumpkins were impressive but I think we fed all the groundhogs in the neighborhood!
So, here are the spaces we have available:
Three planters on the patio and maybe a pot of something:
Two raised/fenced beds off the patio (the back one already planted with asparagus roots):
The fenced garden on the hill (already planted with lavender on one end and echinacea at the other end):
And of course, the space in front of the wood pile is available…not sure what will happen there!
It seems we have lots of room, but we’re certainly not a truck farm!
After much discussion, we decided to focus on what we know works and fill in with flowers.
Our seed order arrived last week! I deliberately copied out the photos of the actual vegetables we ordered…just to see if what we grow looks like the picture. (Haha…never happens, but I can always dream!)
I hope that whatever weather you are experiencing now, you can take time to dream about what you are going to do this spring. I like to have a vision for the future to help me deal with what’s happening now! Enjoy!
Remember, if you have comments or questions please email me directly at maryjkisner@gmail.com.
