It's May!

The magenta tulips are really putting on a show. The dark queen of the night tulips are a nice accent. The violets and violas are having a grand time, along with the creeping phlox. The little lilacs are blooming. The lily-of-the-valley are lending a nice fragrance to the garden. The columbine are starting to bloom... and the heuchera are getting ready... none too soon , as the hummingbirds are back.
I edged the bed around the patio while the robins waited for the worms that i turned up. I also weeded the butterfly bed, the front crabapple tree bed and the front house beds. Still have plenty of others to attend to. And i'm contemplating the vegetable garden.

Good ole' April showers.

Today we had beautiful April showers... enough to fill up the rain barrel. I need to put out the second one. The new mulch looks wonderful and the time seems to have been perfect. With the rain comes a lot of new growth. The clematis, dianthus and allium are getting closer to bloom. The big show currently is the tulips, creeping phlox, grape hyacinth, lily-of-the-valley, violets, violas and daffodils. The trout lily faded fast after last weekend's heat.

April heatwave...

Today the temperature hit 86 degrees... sort of strange considering that a few days ago it was 40 degrees cooler! Oh well, i managed to flow with it pretty well... lots of sunscreen, water and breaks. I remulched the beds near the paperbark maple... and also the main flower bed (almost... i still have a bit more to go) A lot of weeding, digging and lugging. I figured that i carried at least 20 big buckets of mulch today... add that in with the 40 lb. bag of concrete mix. That explains why my back is achy. The concrete mix was used to repair some of the pavers on the back patio. A lot of chippy excavation had occured... so i had to pry up the pavers and then add gravel and concrete, and put the pavers back in place. I also brought out the first rain barrel and hooked it up to the downspout. I repaired (hopefully) two birdbaths that had leaks. I also buried a banana peal near the rose for extra added nutrients.

• Today i noticed that it appears that the quince is taking a year off from blooming... but the flowering almond looks close to bloom
• The orange tulips are looking fine and the small red ones are also blooming
• grape hyacinth in three colors continues to bloom
• five very hearty trout lily plants are having a banner year
• many varieties of daffodils continue to bloom
• new growth on the ferns, hosta, asparagus, heuchera, columbine, lily of the valley
  
• banner year for the freckles viola
  

New Bulbs Planted

This evening wile the temperatures were still very warm i decided to plant some bulbs that i had purchased. I planted 12 Anemones near the sidewalk, 15 fragrant Freesia near the bottom wall and 5 Crocosmia planted near the patio. The rain from earlier in the week helped a lot of the plants grow in quite a spurt. The orange tulips planted last fall look wonderful amidst all the purple and yellow currently in the garden.

I'm really enjoying the small buildings that i purchased last year. They are really nice structural elements in the garden.

April in the Garden

Today was warm, sunny with temps around 60 degrees. We unwrapped the tree trunks of their plastic protection... wish we would have had enough to protect the one lilac that the deer rubbed. But there is another shoot coming up from the ground to take the place of the rubbed branch.

I continues to do the obligatory dandelion digging... buckets of them. I also took to digging out some of the liriope that is spreading past where i want it. Liriope has quite the root structure and it took a lot of digging and prodding to get them out of the ground.

Currently in bloom:

• Dandelion (many varieties)
• Scilla
• Squill
• Wood Hyacinth
• Grape Hyacinth
• Crocus
• Violas
  

March Rains

We received some much needed rain yesterday and more today. Over an inch of rain total... a slow drizzle for days... the garden is very happy.
Yesterday I dug out a couple buckets full of weeds (mostly dandelion)... and today i noticed so many more that seemingly sprung up overnight!
Currently in bloom are the miniature daffodils, and scilla. The trout lilies and grape hyacinth are almost in bloom.
I noticed new growth on the lupine, columbine, tulips, daffodils, honeysuckle, clematis, and violas.

Oh, I'm sore...

Yesterday was a beautiful day. I would have stayed home but had an afternoon meeting that i needed to attend. So I rushed home and jumped in to my gardening clothes. I spent the next 2+ hours in the garden. Cleaning out debris, raking, and clipping a big shrub that needed to be trimmed before bird nesting season. That is what did my arms in. I prefer to use non-electric hedge clippers. I hate the noise and lack of control i have with electric ones. So I clipped and clipped and my arms were screaming at me when i was done. But boy, sis it feel good to be out in the garden! So many plants starting to grow. I noticed the lupine, honeysuckle, columbine, all showing new growth.