"How to cope?"
It's called life.... Ain't it grand! Flexibility are us!

"just when I was resigned to the same old"
Ah, that would be too sad. "Used to" is sometimes not bad. But "resigned".... Hope never to go there.

"there is no way to design a static garden/landscape"
Well, of course not! What would be the fun in that? Would have no excuse to rip parts out and start over, and get my hands all scratched and muddy.

That would be boring, boring...

Good luck with the new puppy. Don't add its joyful leavings into the compost pile.

What is happening? Around here...SPRING is happening. All at once. After almost four months out of work...I worked 33 hours this week. Yowch.

Had today off and spent it mulching my beds. 18 bags of "soil conditioner" later and I've got 2/3 of them done. Hoping to finish up in a week or three. Perhaps I'll get time to post pictures...eventually!

Oh...and my edgeworthia has outdone herself this spring. This is the only picture I have uploaded so far...I'll share more when I get some time. She surely does smell divine!

{{gwi:17547}}

I have that too, Mel; mine is just finishing. The fragrance task is being picked up by the Osmanthus.

The emerging growth is revving me up again.

KarinL

Isn't that the wonder of it all?

A garden is a "happening". Not a "done deal". Not a "conclusion". Not even a "denouement".

And mine is "hopeless".

I talk a reasonable game for a beginner who absorbs factoids fairly well and can spew them out for someone with marginally less knowledge and experience.

Oh, but I guess that means that I'm a "happening", too?

Actually, what's happening here is that an extremely slow renovation on our lower level will move toward a new point ... I don't dare say toward an end point. We're putting about 20 k into this one. Includes work in family room, guest bath, hallway, and guest bedroom.

I haven't a clue if it will be "pretty" ... Just wishing it was done. This week the tile floor goes down. We're springing for the heating element beneath the tile, the single costliest thing in all of this.

Oh, and the sermon thing ... Got to memorize that one this eventide.

Spring? The season when I'm pruning trees while standing atop a metre of snow? Yep, technically it's Spring. And Fn drainage is very much on my mind, with a walk-in basement door at the lowest point of my yard and a flood in my nearest future.
Ink, your mention of hell breaking loose, just reminded me - I had an encounter with the unexpected this week, when a horse who was part of a musical performance tried to eat the costume I had made for the rider; poor costume needed a replacement. And the concert itself... the sound stank, the video was nearly invisible, luckily the horse didn't panic, and the sponsors (surprise!) were said to love the whole thing.
Good luck with the puppy, don't let it eat your sofa.

Here in my part of the south everyone has 'murdered' their crape myrtles. Grrrr! Bradford pears burst into bloom yesterday. Horse and golf fever in full swing. Everything in the area sold out for the Master's golf tournament and the excitement of you know who returning to the links. Yesterday was opening season for the summer circuit of steeplechase racing throughout the south. Over 30,000 attended yesterday's races; a beautiful day of temperatures in the high 70's. Daffodils blooming everywhere soon to be followed by the glorious show of southern azaleas and dogwoods. Spring in the south is awesome! If warm weather continues I will be able to plant my tomatoes and peppers this week.

BTW, Ink, have you ever tried standing an egg on end the day of the Vernal Equinox? That is the only day of year you can accomplish this feat.

Is there anything less predictable than the weather? Sunshine and euphoria yesterday hence my note:today? I was up early and I put the garden furniture out played with the new puppy on the grass as the sky clouded over. Running around after her kept me warm but it was definitely colder than it has been all week. I am just in from putting the furniture back where it came from in a bluddy snow storm, high 70's indeed Nandina hah!

The thing I want to know Ink is - what kind of puppy?! Next to gardens, dogs are my favorite things...

The dogs that have come my way woody have one thing in common, their lack of pedigree. Labradors have those doe eyes that I can't resist and it seems that male dogs of any variety are equally smitten. My old dog, almost 12 is the result of this fatal attraction being a mix of lab shepherd and who knows what else. The newbie is almost a shi*su with bit of fiery fur ball. I really admire this little dog, she runs as fast as her little legs will carry her, wrestles with the cat (3 submissions and your out)chases a ball and then falls asleep just where the tiredness takes her. Gotta stop now woody, I am like this with babies.

Sounds like our kind of dog :-) (our current one is a rescued Lhasa Apso and one of her buddies in the neighbourtood is a baby Shih Tzu named Rambo :-)

I get spring cleaning fever for the outside, never the inside. The beds are all raked out of the leaves that blew in over the winter. They are bagged to be layered with grass clippings come mowing season. The area around the compost pile is all tidied and dh tossed the pile for me (I made him a graham cracker pie for his work). I culled the brick and stone pile and actually got rid of some, gasp! They go to the city recyling pile. Took the garden walk to see what needs to be done this year. Have been gardening for 27 years in this spot and I can see that some of the things I have planted or inherited have reached the end of their life. Either dying out or have outgrown their location. Decisions decisions. Also have to remind myself that just because it looks like I have space for more plants I really don't. Except of course for more sping bulbs. Always room for more Tommis and Snowdrops.

My 10 "free" trees from the Arbor Day folks came yesterday, so I got those potted up. DH is wanting to add lots and lots of trees, and being a little "g" gardener, I thought it would be a fun project to grow them from twigs, LOL. Although, after more reading, I'm thinking these particular trees may be relegated to the back 40.

Meanwhile, spring is busting out all around. The daffs are on their second round of blooms, and I'm getting a few containers going. We had a small snowfall last weekend, which was hopefully the last hurrah of winter.