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The sun shines, the snow in the Alps melts, temperatures are a balmy 9C around Lake Geneva.

First pulsatilla of the year, small, low and hidden among the old foliage in an Alpine rock garden

What’s a gardener to do, when the itch to check out the garden takes over – exactly that, suggests the garden writer at Femina magazine, Valerie Hoffmeyer. When the weather is mild resist the temptation to work in the garden.

Take a tour, give some of your plants a little encouragement, but go easy. It’s also a good time to put the secaturs to work on some plants. I’m taking mine out to the cornouiller tomorrow.

We gardeners apparently look for advice this time of year, because all the experts are suddenly busy giving it. The newsletter just in the door from the American International Women’s Club of Lausanne has a column that tells us late winter is good for cuttings from dormant shrubs.

What caught my eye was the reminder that this is a very good time to divide grasses. They must not grow as wildly and prolifically around Lausanne as they do in the Alps, for the suggestion is to put the part you remove in a pot.

Alpine grasses breed like rabbits. I don’t want to encourage them! Mine are headed for a safe rubbish heap.

Photos: ladybug scurries among the wood chips where tiny crocus buds are pushing up. Right, closeup.

Hester MacDonald’s
shows on WRS radio now appear on the station’s web site. Her latest bit
of advice is to think before you dig, especially if you have heavy clay
soil, which many people around the lake do.

Photos: left, primavera,
wild blooms among the dead leaves of last year, untidy compared to the
lovely shop plants now on sale, but more thrilling for their unruly
independence. Right, the elegant centre of the pulsatilla.

I walked out for that little garden tour and here is what I found:
primavera suddenly blooming, two days after the snow left them, crocus
plants pushing up and plump ladybugs (ladybirds if you prefer)
scurrying from one to another and when the sun sinks too low the bugs
scoot down inside the cozy shoots.

One additional bit of joy is that a path has melted in the snow on the
lawn, freeing up a good little viewing place for the pond, for those of
us who are pond-watchers.

The rock garden that edges the pond held another surprise, the first pulsatilla, or Pasque flower, of the year.

Early Easter, early Easter flower.

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