Spring 2016

It's been a long time since I last posted. That's because a baby named Elliot came along in October and by mid-summer I wasn't doing a whole lot in the garden. I did almost no fall cleanup, so this spring there is a lot to do. I've almost finished the main front bed and the pear trees. Spring is a little earlier than last year. The dwarf irises started blooming eight days earlier and the first crocuses were at least six days earlier.

Late June Garden

Here are some pictures of the back yard beds.

The back bed has a sweet cherry tree, self-seeding yellow coreopsis, a Red Lake currant, some white alliums, lamb's ear, basket of gold, false indigo, mock orange, corydalis, a Rosanne geranium, among others.

 The cottage garden I planted this yera is starting to grow, though it will get a lot more colorful in a month.

The deck bed features a Rainbow Mix coleus I grew from seed in the basement, columbine, my poor New Jersey Tea (it's the chicken wire on the far right), hostas, asiatic lilies, and perennial bachelor buttons among others.

Baby Spinach

Adam and I are expecting a baby in early November. My friend in Phoenix requested a baby bump picture, so Adam took this one before work this morning. You can see Action Owl in the background, failing in his job to scare away bunnies. Though, despite the fact that I've seen a LOT of bunnies this year, the damage hasn't been too bad. I guess I've gotten good at figuring out which plants I have to protect and which ones they'll leave alone. The exception is that I failed to protect my New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus americanus), a nice native shrub, and they keep nibbling it down to the ground. So it's definitely not going to bloom this year.

June is a beautiful month

First, I failed to post the picture i took of our front yard in May. So I'll start with that:

I'm always amazed at how small everything starts and how easy it is to keep things under control at this stage. I forget how big things get in the coming months.
Here's our front yard from this morning. Unfortunately, the irises are already done so i didn't get them in the picture. And the false indigo are past peak (though still lovely structurally).

The other picture I didn't post right away was my new 'cottage garden' that I planted on the south side of our house. I used colors that seemed like a cottage garden: blue, purple, green, pink, and white. A true cottage garden is pretty wild, but this is my interpretation. It doesn't look like much yet of course. But give it a few months. Thanks to Adam for building me that trellis to hold my Clematis integrifolia 'Rooguchi'. Other plans include nicotiana (flowering tobacco), digitalis 'Foxy', some siberian and german iris I transplanted from other places in the yard, Leucanthemum 'Crazy Daisy' that i grew from seed, bells of ireland that i grew from seed (though not very many germinated), snapdragons, zinnias i direct seeded, and dahlias.

This morning before work Adam said that my wood lily (Lilium philadelphicum) was blooming. Sure enough. We planted it about five years ago as a tiny seedling we bought from a prairie nursery at the farmer's market. And this is the first year it bloomed. I knew it was a slow grower (and truth be told, I wasn't entirely sure it was still there at all, despite my attempts to protect it from the purple coneflowers and bloodroot that keep threatening to swallow it. I'd say it was worth the wait.

Surprise bloomer

In the fall of 2013 I planted five Fritillaria rubra maxima bulbs in the tropical garden. They came up the next spring, but then quickly died. I later learned that these large bulbs are hollow and likely rotted (future note: plant them sideways). However, this spring four out of five came up again and one actually bloomed. I remember now why i decided to plant them. They look great in my topical garden along with some daffodils and tulips I had planted last fall.

What does it take for a hellebore to open?

This hellebore (i think it's 'Ivory Prince') has been on the verge of opening for about two weeks now. I keep checking it every day to make sure i don't miss it.

This past Saturday i finished spring clean-up in the front yard. Here's what it currently looks like. You can't see that there are still crocuses blooming, the daffodils are definitely up, and the hyacinth started blooming the next day. 

 Here are some of my best crocuses this year ('Goldilocks' and 'Lady Killer').

And here are my ever-faithful bloodroot, just starting out. I probably left a slightly too thick layer of pine needs on them last fall, but after i had finished cleanup in the front yard on Saturday, i ran out of steam to continue in the back.

Spring is here?

Two weeks ago it felt like spring. Last week it felt like winter again. Now I think we're back to spring for good. My crocuses have been blooming for a couple weeks, and the dwarf irises started about a week ago. These are 'Pauline' (the more purple one in the back) and 'Pixie' (the brighter ones in the front). The tulips are about 6" tall and the daffodils and hyacinths are just poking out.