Yippee and yahoo! I worked in the yard today. A calm sunny day at 64 degrees. It was wonderful to be outside again. I didn’t dig, hoe, weed or plant. Instead, I picked up sticks and branches from the 60-plus mile per hour winds a few days ago that were strong enough to shut down Highway 580. Although we had one four-inch diameter cottonwood branch come down, thankfully it missed the house and our bay window.

JoAnne Skelly

I didn’t mind the old pick-up stick game because it was so nice to be out in the sun. I filled the trash can with more for next week. I checked on the daffodils, which seemed to be fine after 29 inches of snow.

I marked each clump with a red flag, so we don’t step on them working in the yard. I was proud of myself. After I ran out of store-bought pink flags, I made my own flags with red duct tape and the wires from the old markers that had lost their flag bits. Saved me a trip to the store and helped me recycle and reuse old wires instead of throwing them out. 

Another fun note is that my kale plants are growing again. I experimented by leaving them in their pots over winter, just to see what would happen. Usually, I toss the plants out in the fall and repot new ones each spring. I was happily surprised to see that over the last few weeks lots of new leaves are growing. I will wait to see if they develop to maturity and how they taste.

Unfortunately, I also noticed a few pending challenges. There is grass growing profusely in my flower beds; far more than I will be able to dig by hand. I probably will have to resort to an herbicide (yuck!) to get it under control. I discovered vole tunnels again, which is so disheartening after the horrible infestation we had two years ago. In addition to this early vole damage there are also ground squirrel mounds in the yard, which makes sense since I have seen a ground squirrel already. 

Will there be aphids or spider mites this year? Will the lawn be taken over by clover? Will the rabbits eat the hosta? Will there be too many apples again this year? All these questions and many more cross my happy gardener’s mind. Another garden season begins.

— JoAnne Skelly is an Associate Professor and Extension Educator, Emerita, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. She can be reached at skellyj@unr.edu.