Spring Color and Composting Service

This robin was checking out the strawberry patch. I transplanted about a dozen new little plants last Spring. They might produce this year, but I should keep the fruit production to a minimum while the plants get established.
The colors and simplicity as well as the shadow and light of this photo intrigued me. If it was not a bug, I might print it and hang it in my new yellow kitchen. :-))

The fruit trees are coming into bloom, as well as all the camillias, azalyeas, rhodos, forsythias, winter jasmine and so many others. The streets of the city are beautiful and fragrant. The Spring blooming bulbs are livening up gardens and boulevards. The hum of lawn mowers and the screech of trimmers is much in evidence.

Yesterday was another sunny glorious day. We got a deli sandwich lunch and drove out to the Songhees area to have our picnic. After that I walked, shooting for this months Victoria Grid Project photo group on Flickr. .. more on this later.

Last August I signed up for a composting service that has made my gardening much easier. They drop off a big green compost bin. I add all clippings and tree trimmings to the bin. They pick up all the compostable material and leave me a 20L bag of compost, monthly for a fee of $20.00. During the first few months my bin was full to overflowing, as I loaded all the piles of shrub clippings and tree trimmings that were lying around the garden. The last few months I have had very little in the bin, except for the kitchen compost. I have six bags of compost to use in the reseeding of bits of lawn in my garden, in the vegetable garden and the flower beds. My old compost bin at the back will need to be emptied someday, also.