The Ants Go Marching One by One...

...Hurrah! Hurrah! Somebody once told me that when the ants wake up and start making their ant hills it's ok to plant. I noticed ant hills, lots of them, in the cracks of the sidewalks around Foreclosure Park on April 5th. For any readers out in the wider world, we are talking Zone 4, Minneapolis here. The thought of planting in early April is crazy. It's been interesting observing the gardens waking up this year, though. Some of the minor bulbs came 2 weeks early. Others I haven't seen at all. Does that mean they aren't coming to the party, or they know how to read the calendar? The daffodils that are supposed to bloom the same time as the early iris look like they might be done before the irises get their buds. So much for that combination!

It's like that with the visitors to Foreclosure Park, too. Like the scilla and the daffodils, Musician Paul and Teacher Vant stopped to wish me a Happy Spring and said they'd been wondering when I was going to get to the cleaning. Like the crocus and muscari, I haven't seen my elder friends Horace and Nina yet. Joe came by though. He asked me to do the math to figure out how old he is, and was tickled I got it right. 81-years-old last November. I got to hear again the story of how he gave up his retirement lake home Up North to live out his days in town with his wife. They've been married 54 years, so he thought he'd stick it out with her. I promised to look for some bush cucumber plants for him. The other kind send vines across the driveway. That's apartment living for you.

In spite of the massive snow mounds dumped at Foreclosure Park last winter, just about all the perennials show promise of returning. The exception being my cherished Cary Grant Hybrid Tea Rose. Sigh. It wasn't really hardy to Zone 4, but I was hoping! I called the nursery that sells them and got a release for sale date, so I will be replacing it in May. Right on time, not too early, not too late. For sure.