Stamp of the Day: Apple Blossoms

An apple blossom stamp from Canada:

Here in New Jersey the cherry and peach trees are flowering like pink bursting clouds, and soon it is the apple trees turn. Spring has finally arrived for real, and so far it seems all our plants survived the rather mild winter. Well, maybe not the sage, but that seemed sick last fall. Last weekend we cut down the butterfly (Buddleja) bushes, and our two dwarf apple trees have been snipped shorter to. I wish for large harvests of raspberries and gooseberries and concord grapes this year. And strawberries too and those little orange Sungold tomatoes, my favorite cherry tomato. I have been a very bad gardener so far, not one seed is started inside. Since we have joined an organic farm we will get a lot of vegetables every Thursday, so there is no need to grow so much of everyday vegetables. I think we will concentrate our efforts on some tomatoes, New Mexico peppers, onions (to keep insects at bay), and lots of basil and parsley. PP and I will have to discuss what will go in the boxes. I cheat too - there is no way you can get parsley to germinate without a hard frost, so I will buy parsley plants in the store and plant them out. We had some that overwintered too. One box is completely filled with flowers, many different kinds and annuals and perennials mixed. In the fall after they have flowered I move the perennial ones to the permanent flower beds in the garden. Ah, gardening! It is wonderful and desperate at the same time. You just have to be happy over what you get and what works, and not worry over what gets eaten, sick, or disappear. I bet I won't think that when the groundhog eats all my parsley... which I am sure will happen.