Greenhouse construction is finally underway. My husband and step brother have been working 8 hour days on it and we are getting closer. My windowsills are full of seedlings and I am running out of room waiting for our last frost. (It snowed this weekend, spring time comes slowly in the mountains).

The arugula and spinach is outside and thriving along with the onions. We have some hops just showing signs of green, and a few young asparagus plants weathering the cold. The tulips are in bloom and the lilacs are just showing some buds in spite of the recent freeze. The mint patch is looking good and I have some potted pansies on the patio to keep the promise of more flowers alive. The fruit trees are budding out and our sweet almond blooms have come and gone. I have also put out several plants of creeping thyme, while I lay some generously spaced flagstone. I am hoping to create a low maintenance space that will tolerate the dogs but still look attractive. Pea gravel may be in our future.

In the back, I am weeding weeding weeding. We have planted a beautiful weeping spruce to go with our three juniper trees and large ornamental grasses as a screen. We have seven Karl forester grasses, three giant sacatons and one miscanthus. I’m hoping that’ll do the trick while the junipers mature to screen the view of the houses down the hill. The ground is cleared for the small patch of cool season turf which will meet the wildflower meadow at two globe willows. The seed has been purchased for the meadow and I am busily preparing the ground while I wait for the danger of frost to pass. All in all pleasant if not erratic and sometimes windy weather.

My mind is full of flower bed plans to be installed in our first landscaping project for a client and I spend free moments scouring native seed catalogs and Pinterest for inspiration.

As far as business goes, we have one big project and one small maintenance contract. Not eating meat very often these days, but I’m hoping to get some ad space in the local paper shortly and gently pestering people hoping to get word of mouth going. Our website is up and looks good. I have a little blog going for it that is fun to work on and of course we have a small but growing Facebook presence. It’s a little scary, but my anxiety about bills and groceries is completely mixed up with my excitement at being able to spend my time and energy on something that I so love l, knowing that my husband feels the same way. We alternate in our panicking, so far one at least one of us is confident when such episodes arise. We do panic from time to time though. That is all the news that is fit to print for this little aspiring business.