Spring is happening so quickly with this warm weather spell! Everywhere I look here there are things waking up with a stretch saying “mmm… what’s for breakfast?!”. The Magnolia stellata (Star magnolia) is rising with the sun from the top down. The water garden ferns are uncurling (exept for this fuzzy little guy is still tightly tucked) and early bird Hepatica has been up for hours already.

The volunteers have been busy so far this week – Tuesday’s Deadheads weeded the entire Display area and planted the Sweet peas! Sweet peas are the first seeds we sow in the greenhouse and the first annuals we plant in the garden because they thrive in the cool weather.

Today the Rockettes weeded the Rock Garden and uncovered some washed out paths and this afternoon, Gail and I took advantage of the afternoon’s cloud cover to start the North Garden relocation project. (As I wrote that I flashed on an image of jacking up the garden and trailering it to a new spot. We’re not doing that – it’s good where it is!) We were inspired by Fergus Garrett, the late Christopher Lloyd’s head gardener at Great Dixter, to reorganize the plants we already have to take better advantage of their best attributes. I’ll talk more about this as we get more organized! Early spring is a great time to move or divide perennials because they’re easy to handle before they’ve grown too much and as long as you keep them watered like you would a new plant, they’ll settle in before the heat of summer. It’s also best to move plants on a cool cloudy day with rain in the forecast – today was perfect!