Forsythia Blooms and the Mulch Monster Appears

Spring is upon us in the high desert of Idaho. Blooms are staring to pop on some plants, bulbs are emerging, and robins have begun to flitter about the homestead. Surely you can't get a more traditional sign of warmer weather than the presence of robins, the harbingers of Spring.

I've never paid much attention to forsythia before, possibly because I'm not certain they were in North Dakota. But forsythia are widespread here in Idaho and for gardeners, forsythia blooms are the first sign that warmer weather has arrived.

Our neighbor has a forsythia in the back of his yard that drapes over our fence. The bright and cheery yellow blooms have been in full effect for most of this week. Forsythia blooms may become a new official first marker for the arrival of Spring.

A time tested sign of Spring for us is the appearance of the mulch monster, aka Shaak Ti, taking a cozy nap on the warm mulch. The temperature needs to be Spring-like, the sunbeam needs to be powerful, and there can't be snow on the ground. Once you get those conditions, the mulch monster appears.

Shaak Ti is pretty good at napping in the mulch, or on the gravel path as she demonstrated last Summer. In North Dakota her favorite spot was against the house, laying in the dirt - the Deaf Dog Dirt Day Spa as we called it. We're hoping that a napping spot in gravel will keep her at least a little bit cleaner.