I heard the Marsh wren last night ... and around here that means spring is really here. Its one of those funny years where the forsythia is already yellow before the pussy willows can rush to catch up.

Tomorrow, we have a third quarter Pisces Moon, which is a perfect time to transplant perennials and shrubs. I've been working all week getting the beds ready out back as there is quite a bit to move this year.

All the perennial herbs of course need to get out of the new play yard for the dogs. The sturdier stuff ... like the oregano and the wormwood ... can stay, but the more delicate things like Lady's Mantle would never survive a season of such boisterous play that one friend of mine refers to as wrestlemania. Its well worth the work of moving herbs, because now I have a safe place for my dogs to play off leash. The downside of living with all this wildlife is that there really are no safe places to take the dogs off leash close by here.

I like starting things from seed ... and this year there is a treasure trove of herbs that are ready to come out of their birthplace in the main garden. It would be tougher to move them next month if we get hot dry weather that that everyone is expecting .. and this will also free up the bottom end of the garden bed.

As part of all this, I've been sculpting a new pond out back. In realspeak that means lots of heavy work with a shovel and prybar. This afternoon, I thought I was going out to finish digging, only to discover that I'd located the new pond on a natural spring. Why is that a problem? Wouldn't that be a good thing?

It was a great thing when I had the upper pond dug ... in fact if there hadn't been three natural springs that project would never have got out the gate.

But this is a different kind of pond... and not just because its hand sculpted instead of created by an excavator. ( Even 16 years ago, it would not have been "an achievable objective" for me to hand dig a pond over sixty feet long: ))))

This one will have a waterfall ... which means a pump ... which in turn will need a liner. The ornamental pond out front has a proper heavy duty pond liner ... but for this project the liner is going to be the liner from the above ground pool that I used to have. ( I loved having the pool all those hot summers when I worked as a cook, but honestly once I retired, I simply didn't have the time to use the pool ... let alone to maintain it. It was frosting on the cake that when I took the pool down that I was left with a lovely flat round spot to put in the brick patio : ))))

Happily, its less work to fill the hole in .... even when its full of water to the brim. There will still be a pond ... but plan B involves building up "walls" rather than digging another hole in the hopes there will be no spring there either.

The first signs of life are popping up in my little greenhouse. Its a little cobbled up thing of recycled windows and wood and in no way could it be considered weather tight. The layer of windows that were propped on 4 by 4 ends seems to have given the seed flats the protection they needed during that last cold snap we had ... phew!

And yes ... that is an old fridge serving as a potting table: ))) Laid on its side, its the perfect size for the spot and it needed to get out of the workshop.

If you are doing any transplanting of your own, this entire weekend will be the last good opportunity to do this until we get to Friday, the 7th of May.

Yup ... it really is true ... now that I'm retired I can't imagine where I had the time to work : )))))