First Day of Spring

"I love spring anywhere; but if I could choose,  I would always greet it in a garden."  Ruth Stout

The tulip bulbs that I planted in the fall are now sprouting and are about 3 inches tall.  The bulbs were planted on October 8, 2016 (See "Tulip Bulbs" post). They are a bright pink variety growing on both sides of the arbor at the garden entrance.  They've been covered by our recent snowfall which doesn't harm the new growth.

The garlic cloves that were planted last fall have also sprouted.

garlic sprouting

And our maple trees continue to drip sap.  So far we've made 3 quarts of syrup.  Each day I save the sap in gallon milk jugs and store them in the refrigerator.  Right now there are 6 gallons saved, so I'll probably boil them down tomorrow, making about 2-1/2 cups of syrup from the 6 gallons. That'll be 5 to 6 hours of boiling.

Update:  The sap was really flowing from our 6 taps, so I ended up with 10 gallons to boil down.  It took 10 hours and ended up with 3-1/2 cups of syrup!

Happy Spring!