cyber gardening

2011-05-06T19:02:00.004-05:00

I should have been out taking pictures since we came back from vacation in early April because there were crocuses blooming then. . . but now things are starting to get really nice.

Well, except for the decapitated tulips.

I’m not sure who is doing that (rabbits or squirrels - I'm pretty sure it's not the neighbor's cat), but it is irritating. I love the fact that these are a really old type of tulip and probably were growing and blooming in this yard even before the McConnon’s moved here – they are part of the history of this place. . . now if I can just get the critters to leave them alone!

Then there are the May flowers, which I planted (three plants) and that now are beginning to get out of hand – I’ll have to move them before they run over everything else!

I’m most pleased this year with my Lenten Bells. After years of trying (and spending a fortune on the things) I finally have a half-dozen clumps in bloom – including one white one! The clump in front, which is the oldest, has really begun to spread and is blooming like crazy.

Now if only it were easier to actually photograph them!

Among the next things to bloom will be the trillium and my yellow magnolia. I’m headed out of town soon through and am afraid I will miss both of them this year!!

2011-05-06T17:55:00.002-05:00

A few things spotted in the neighborhood that I WISH were in my own yard:

2010-11-13T13:46:00.001-06:00

Winter begins:

2010-07-14T18:43:00.002-05:00

Our tree lost.

With a major storm predicted we thought it prudent to move a car into the garage. . . the city must have moved in almost immediately, given the percentage of the day given over to rain and lightening.

2010-07-11T21:55:00.002-05:00

It's beginning to look like summer.

2010-07-10T19:49:00.000-05:00

Tree preservation has become a priority, so Lane did a little trimming and we are leaving the car parked strategically under our tree for a bit.

I'm pretty sure the city forestry department actually hates trees, based on the massacre that has been underway on our block. For example, our neighbor had her beautiful, full tree professionally trimmed the other year. The city removed more than half of it:

So I'll be guarding my tree awhile longer, hoping that the city crews will move on and forget about us again for a few years.

2010-07-07T22:28:00.000-05:00

View from the 3rd floor deck:

2010-06-29T22:13:00.000-05:00

My favorite lily.

2010-06-01T22:05:00.000-05:00

2010-05-20T21:28:00.002-05:00

2010-05-16T21:34:00.002-05:00

What a difference a day makes!

Yesterday

Today

2010-05-15T23:00:00.006-05:00

The Good, the Bad, and the Truly Disgusting

Although the garden’s spring peak is past, it is still lovely as the tulips and trilliums start to fade, the azalea’s reach their peak, and the “June” flowers like the clematis and tree peonies begin to bloom.

But not everything is beautiful.

It must have been a hard winter for the wisteria.

I hope there will be blossoms this year.

There are weeds everywhere (I don’t know how I will ever find time to deal with all of them!), as the purple plants from hell and stray prairie plants from across the street continue their insidious takeover of my yard.

And then there are a few things that are truly disgusting, like the worms that are devouring the miniature pine by the front walkway.

Ugh! I just can’t deal with worms. Give me any other bug.

2010-05-15T18:01:00.002-05:00

One of the best things about having water in the garden that it attracts birds.

This has been a particularly good year as, along with our usual pair of cardinals, nuthatches, chickadees, and English sparrows, this year we have had a couple pairs of gold finches and hoards of native sparrows with their striped heads. (Probably song sparrows, chipping sparrows, and clay colored sparrows, but maybe others too.)

Today a pair of wrens chased the neighbors cat away, so they must have a nest somewhere too.

I wish I had pictures, but they are always so much faster than I am so you will have to trust me.

2010-05-05T21:09:00.000-05:00

Lilac reflections

2010-05-02T20:26:00.007-05:00

2010-04-22T20:33:00.000-05:00

We almost removed the remains of this flowering almond last year after it died back to almost nothing. Now I'm really glad I gave it another chance!

2010-04-22T18:36:00.000-05:00

2010-04-20T20:58:00.000-05:00

2010-04-18T20:17:00.000-05:00

Lane has agreed to photograph the garden for me while I am out of town so I don't entirely miss out on the cherry and magnolia blossoms that have now begun to join the marsh marigold, hepatica, tulips, and forget-me-nots. (The bloodroot has already finished blooming: Who would have expected the garden to bloom so early!?)

2010-04-11T14:43:00.000-05:00

2010-04-04T22:48:00.000-05:00

2009-06-01T23:23:00.000-05:00

2009-05-13T17:30:00.000-05:00

Now it is really spring and I am about to leave for the West Coast. What was I thinking?!?

Sure, there is plenty of yard work that I'm happy to avoid,

but the garden is also becoming more and more beautiful every day.

And the lilacs are blooming! I wait all year for the week the lilacs bloom and, even though I should know that the lilacs always bloom in the middle of May, I planned to be away. How foolish is that?

Never again!

2009-05-07T21:31:00.000-05:00

View (through a telephoto lens) of the back yard from the second floor deck.

The magnolia has been glorious all week, as have the cowslips, tulips (these red ones are a very old species that have probably been growing here for 50 years), and hepatica. The trillum are just coming into full bloom now and, unfortunately, the lilacs look like they will be in full bloom while I am gone.

I need to remember: No travel during May!

2009-03-15T16:29:00.001-05:00

Late winter/early spring is not a lovely time in Minnesota.

The dirty melting snow leaves behind muck that coats last fall's leaves and other detritus better left buried. The piles of brush left from last fall are visible again, piled to the mushy perennials that I never quite finished cleaning up before winter came.

Still, there is a bit of hope that spring will one day return:

The hardy geranium are pale green and wilted, like lettuce leaves left out too long, but they ARE green.

The crazy marsh marigolds apparently have been sending up new leaves under the ice on the pond!

It also appears that there will be magnolia blossoms this year.

They can't work their magic soon enough!

2008-10-25T17:20:00.000-05:00

Late October and still no frost.

That is likely to change soon, but it sure is nice while it lasts.

2008-07-19T23:10:00.000-05:00

New waterlilies

2008-06-28T22:53:00.000-05:00

I can't believe how many waterlilies are in bloom!

2008-06-27T22:46:00.000-05:00

The garden is quickly moving from full spring flowering into summer.

2008-06-04T22:43:00.000-05:00

The garden as it looked when we returned from Paris.

2008-05-29T17:39:00.000-05:00

The yard, as it looks when I take a break from packing for Paris:

2008-05-24T14:20:00.000-05:00

2008-05-10T22:21:00.000-05:00

2008-03-22T14:51:00.001-05:00

My side-yard the day before Easter:

2007-07-17T20:02:00.000-05:00

Tonight I am sitting in the back yard and the scent of the lilies halfway across the yard is almost overwhelming.

Sorry I've been very lazy about keeping this up-to-date, but then, I have also been very lazy about gardening in general. . . aside from keeping things watered, I can't say I've done much on the horticultural front thus far this year. I have, however, spent a fair number of evenings back here enjoying the gardens. Now I just need to get some pictures up for you.

2007-05-06T23:07:00.000-05:00

2007-05-03T20:04:00.000-05:00

2007-04-30T20:03:00.000-05:00

I came home today to find a large pile of tree limbs and branches in the yard between my house and the neighbor's.

There has been a sort of scraggly ash tree there for as long as we've owned the house. The neighbor planted it at some point in time and seemed to have not really thought about it again until our magnificent old elm came down in a storm a number of years ago. Since then he has repeatedly offered to take down the ash to allow more sun to reach the flower beds in my yard and the new maple the city planted in the boulevard. It didn't really matter one way or the other to me, the flowerbeds, or the maple - and so the ash tree remained.

Until today.

2007-04-27T19:39:00.000-05:00

I am sitting in my garden, birds are calling and visiting the pond while dappled sunlight filtering through the budding lilacs occasionally blinds me. I've been gone most of the week and returned to amazing changes in the garden.

Most exciting: I have hellebores in bloom!!!!

For years I have tried to grow hellebores (Lenten Rose) with limited success. I have a clump in the front yard I've managed to keep alive and actually looking healthy for several years (all the others around the yard have died), but without ever seeing any blooms. Since these plants are really expensive to purchase, I had pretty much decided my experiment with hellebores had come to an end. And now this. I can hardly believe it is true.

On the other hand, I almost entirely missed seeing the larger of my cherry trees in bloom. The blossoms come and go so fast that it will be done blooming in just a couple more days. Good thing I got home in time to actually see it!

We've watered some this spring, but it has been dry. That might have contributed to the cherry's perhaps faster-than-usual bloom and fade this year. It certainly seems to have affected the peach blossoms, which seem small and stunted - although still heavenly.

I was worried that I was going to lose the blossoms on my Butterflies magnolia during the cold snap a few weeks ago, but it again proved to be a hardy and reliable bloomer.

I took a bit of a risk when I purchased this tree years ago, but the local gardeners were wrong and the nursery catalogue was right. Good job, Wayside Gardens.

The bloodroot have almost finished blooming. They are being replaced by hepatica, the first trilliums, and a few early Virginia bluebells.

Soon they will be joined by merrybells and Mayflowers.

Those are all in the backyard wildflower gardens.

In front, along with the hellebores, the prairie plants have begun to bloom.

I never think of prairie smoke as one of the first flowers of spring, but here in my city garden it always is.

Growing up at the edge of the prairie, the pasque flowers were always the next sign of spring's arrival after the marsh-loving cowslips. Here, however, they tend to come later. Today only one brave plant has sent up a blossom.
Although the species tulips have been putting on their usual early spring show, I've had only a few crocus or other bulbs thus far.

Perhaps the rabbits are to blame for the lack of crocus, but the tulips are just biding their time.

It's all an amazing change just since Monday morning - and there is much more to come!

2007-04-22T22:50:00.000-05:00

Clearly spring is here, as its earliest harbingers -- the bloodroot and cow slips are blooming like crazy.

2007-04-21T00:00:00.000-05:00

I have a cactus blooming!

Actually, it has been blooming off and on for awhile, but I hadn't gotten a picture of it yet. This is a different one from last year's so I'm really thrilled.

Of course, there are still batches of orchids blooming, including some new ones. Wonderful!

2007-04-16T21:12:00.000-05:00

Maybe spring is actually here to stay.

I got most of the front yard raked and discovered a few crocus blooming amid the leaves in the boulevard garden.I seem to have lost most of the bloodroot in the side yard (I suppose when I was mucking around trying to get the rose bushes out), but the ones in back are already starting to bloom.

It's amazing how hardy these guys are. I really thought last week's cold weather would set them back a lot more than this! Everywhere I look I see plants sprouting. Spring IS coming.

2007-04-06T23:49:00.000-05:00

Indoor gardening is going well. Aside fromthe orchids that have been putting on quite a show, there is another beauty I should show off:

2007-03-01T20:06:00.000-06:00

This is what the yard looked like when I finished snowing this afternoon.

And there is only 8-10 more inches to come!

2006-10-17T12:21:00.000-05:00

The end of the season has come and the garden is ready for winter now -- or at least as ready as I'm likely to get it.

After the snow the weather turned cold and windy. Everything tender froze, leaving only the mums and a few roses still showing off.

On Sunday, under a sunny sky, I got got most of my yardwork done. We started in the back yard. We got the fountain out of the pond, the more tender plants dropped down a little deeper, and netting stretched across to keep the leaves from blowing in. The new plantings and the roses have been mulched with an extra layer of marsh hay. I even potted some of the coleus slips I had taken a few weeks back.

In the vegetable garden, I harvested the shell peas that had dried before the frost hit. (Those that weren't yet ready last week froze into mush.) I removed the bean plants, but left the new, self-seeded dill because it looked so happy. I got most of the tomato vines out. (I had to get the walls-o-water out, otherwise it was tempting to just leave all of them for spring.) I covered the asparagus with marsh hay (maybe more of it will overwinter this way), cleaned a couple of the empty beds, and then spread the remaining marsh hay everywhere that was relatively weed-free. (The asparagus was not weed free, but I'm hoping they are annual weeds.) Now I will have a some beds ready to plant next March when I am itching to plant peas and lettuce!

2006-10-11T22:38:00.000-05:00

I guess winter is on its way.

It didn't actually freeze last night, but today it snowed. . .

2006-10-02T00:00:00.000-05:00

It is fall in the garden.

The large tree hydrangea by the front porch has changed from creamy white to rose gold.

The mums are blooming, both the ones I've had for years and the ones I (finally) got in the ground this year.

Despite all these classic fall images, the roses are still happily in bloom . .

as are the forget-me-nots.

We haven't had a frost yet, as is clear from the happy, healthy basil still growing in the back yard.

The fish, however, are a little more sluggish, already slowing down in the cooler water.

Soon winter will be sending signs of its return.

2006-08-19T19:51:00.000-05:00

Back from my travels and I really should spend some time in the yard. It's rather neglected looking and there really isn't a lot blooming. I expected it to be in full bloom, so I am a bit disappointed.

Oddly enough, I have wisteria blooming. Now. In mid-August.

2006-07-30T18:28:00.000-05:00

So here is the big surprise in my garden.

I know it isn't a great picture, but doesn't it look like a peach? Yeah, it IS a peach. Remember the pear blossoms I commented on last spring? I should have known that pear blossoms are white, not pink. Anyway, I am delighted to have fruit.

(Sometimes it's hard to remember what I ended up ordering after going through piles of garden catalogs!)

The rest of the garden in the back yard features phlox,

hostas,

the wisteria seed pods that hang above my table,

the pond,

and a few happy house plants summering alongside the pond.

2006-07-29T19:06:00.000-05:00

I need a picture of the house for a card I'm doing, which was incentive to get out with my camera.

This is what I ended up with for my card:

As you can see, the front yard is pretty much at its peak right now, with lots of lilies and other summery things mixed in with the greenery.

From the porch, the view out to the street highlights the rudbeckia, without evidence of the large numbers of coneflowers that crowd everything else. The butterflies like it though, which is fun.

2006-07-28T22:54:00.000-05:00

Sorry there haven't been any new posts lately.

It has been HOT here and sticky and I've been a rather negligent gardener -- only watering when I've had to. (Thank goodness for dripper hoses!) Still, the established flower beds are looking pretty good. The new beds are looking a little sparse, but thus far I've kept them watered well enough to survive, so I'm hoping they will fill in next year.

2006-07-19T00:11:00.000-05:00

It is definately summer in the garden now, with the prairie plants moving into the spotlight.

2006-07-03T22:05:00.000-05:00

I have very happy waterlilies.

The fish are also doing well.

Lane has already taught them to come to the surface for food when he shows up. I love watching them sway and dance in the water.

2006-06-29T21:46:00.000-05:00

More of the lilies. . .

I've also been adding roses again.

While I'm continually watering the flowerbeds, the waterlilies are enjoying all this sunshine.

I've also dumped most of the houseplants outside. They seem to be enjoying their little summer vacation.

This is the walkway from the back of the house to the garage. I've finally made the connection!

(Although, as you can see, I need about another dozen chunks of the bluestone Still, it is now possible to walk from the garage to the house without traipsing through the dirt. This is definately an accomplishment.)

Of course, there are a few other projects I need to get to as well.

2006-06-27T21:41:00.000-05:00

Late June in the backyard.

2006-06-25T19:22:00.000-05:00

We added some fish to the pond today. They are mostly orange or orange and white, but one really is golden (with a long white tail) and one is lemon yellow and white. The ones we had from last year were all black, making them hard to see. While I can see them from the second floor deck, you can't see them in this picture. (Sorry about that.)

2006-06-24T23:47:00.000-05:00

It is summer in the garden now, with the lilies, roses, coreopsis, and rudbeckia and all the other summer flowers coming into bloom.

The most vigorous of my waterlilies has been blooming for some time, but now it often puts up three or four bright pink blossoms at a time.

Now if only I could keep the rabbits away from the new lilies and hostas!

2006-06-24T00:32:00.000-05:00

We have a plant in our yard we call "the purple plant from hell." It is not something I planted - they came with the house. I've been trying to eliminate them since we moved in.

These plants must have been a hit in the 1950s, when a brave new future awaited all aspects of life. I can see the magazine ad: "The perfect plant for any home! Lovely flowers on indestructible plants, they spread readily to create lovely clumps of cheery purple flowers."

It is a purple bell flower. Apparently they are still sold in nurseries, although doing so should be classified as a criminal activity. The plant has lovely spikes of purple, bell-shaped flowers. Those flower spikes are loosely attached to a tuber that is buried deep in the ground and that is capable of sprouting through concrete. When you try to pull up the plant, the top breaks off, leaving the tuber in the ground. When you try to dig out the plant, the tuber tends to break off and even the smallest bit of root or tuber will regenerate into a new plant, setting out a new tuber within a year or two.

The bees and other bugs love them.

2006-06-21T22:19:00.000-05:00

It is cherry season here in St. Paul.

Usually I don't have cherries until July1st, so this is a little early.

I have two cherry trees, both of which are supposed to be pie cherries. The one reliably produces a huge crop of small, tart cherries starting about July 1st. Some years I've tried to keep the birds away, but I don't bother any more. The tree is mature now and produces a LOT of cherries and, sadly, we seem to have a lot fewer birds now than we did ten years ago when this tree first started producing. The birds can have their share.

The other tree is twice the size and produces huge, lucious looking fruit that I had never tasted until two or three years ago. Before that time it hadn't produced much fruit and its sturdy branches provided a steady perch for the neighborhood squirrels. A few years ago there were enough cherries that I got to taste a couple -- and discovered that they are sweet! No wonder the squirrels cleaned them out.

This year both trees have produced a bumper crop and, by standing on the roof of our new garage, I've even been able to harvest a bucket of the sweet cherries that the squirrels hadn't gotten around to eating yet. . . and there will be more to harvest over the next few weeks.

My cheery pitter should get quite a work-out this year!

2006-06-13T21:51:00.000-05:00

Summer is beginning to appear in my garden.

2006-06-12T20:56:00.000-05:00

My vegetable garden, which until now has included a very productive raspberry patch, is not actually located in my yard.

When we moved here over a dozen years ago, several of the neighbors had been gardening on the vacant lot across the street from us. I quickly joined them, building a number of raised beds, growing all manner of vegetables, and tending the raspberries left by another neighbor.

A few years later, this tax-forfeited lot came up for sale. Two of the three household that abutted the property were interested in purchasing it and we accompanied them to the sale as spectators. At the sale, we found out that the slumlord who owned the third abutting property was also interested in it. Between the slumlord and a couple developers, the price quickly went above what either of our neighbors had available as ready cash. We bought the lot.

Despite the bidding battle, the lot wasn't expensive, so we decided to keep it, pay a few hundred dollars in taxes each year, and allow the neighbors to continue to garden with me. The gardening was good.

After a few years, the city re-assessed the property and the taxes went from a few hundred dollars to closer to a thousand dollars. Too much for a garden. Both neighbors still wanted the property - one to provide a buffer and garden space between her home and the slumlord's rental property and one to build a garage behind her house. I wanted to continue gardening there. My husband wanted to make some money by selling it to a contractor who would build a new single family home on the lot.

The compromise was to sell it - at cost - to the neighbor who wanted to build a garage on the back half. It was a compromise because, in exchange, she agreed to let us put a 20 year conservation easement on the front half of the lot. This gave me the legal right to use the front half for gardening.

So things continued on much as they had before. I was self-employed then, working part-time from my home and seasonally during the winter. This left lots of time for gardening and canning, so I grew the raspberries, strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and etc. and then made jams, jellies, sauces, salsas, and pickles out of everything we couldn't eat fresh.

As various neighbors moved and were replaced by others less interested in gardening, I acquired a few more beds. At the same time I changed jobs and found myself with the same gardening ambition, but less time for gardening.

Which means more weeds and which brings me back to the raspberries.

The raspberries were originally planted along the back edge of the front half of the property. When our neighbor built her garage and wanted to landscape, we moved the raspberries along a fenceline near the vegetable beds. I've tried to keep them in place there, but they have spread both along the fence and into the vegetable gardens. My veggie beds are far enough from the fence that the raspberry runners were a nuisance, but not unmanageable. On the other hand, the neighbor who now owns the lot built her vegetable beds so they snuggle right up alongside the raspberries and their runners drive her nuts.

Last week we discussed the raspberries, as she was apparently in the process of removing many of them. I told her I wanted to keep some right along the fence, and then next year I would try to find a spot in my yard for them and move them out of the vegetable garden. Right now I don't have another option for the raspberries and I love having the berries throughout the summer. She seemed agreeable, so I never really gave them another thought.

Until I came home tonight after spending the weekend with my parents.

The remainder of the raspberries (four plants) were sitting in a bucket of water in my back yard.

Along with decimation of the raspberry patch, she also moved my rhubarb into my asparagus bed and planted flowers in the bed where I had the rhubarb and had intended to move the chives and other perennial herbs.

Gee, thanks.

2006-06-08T21:40:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to write Dawn this week and tell her that the little lilies (she called them gas plants) that she helped transplant from her garden in Rochester to mine are blooming now.

I appreciate the fact that these little lilies bloom early enough to fill the gap that would otherwise exist until the other larger lilies appear. Or course, they are also lovely.

When she first gave me these plants I put them in a semi-shady spot along the fence. In the intervening years the trees have grown and this area is now in deep shade. So, two year ago, I moved a couple of them into the front yard. Shortly thereafter that I read that they don't tolerate transplanting very well. Hmmm. Half of the first group survived, so I moved a few more last year. Most of those have survived and I am looking forward to the display they will give me next year.

Thank you, Dawn.

2006-06-06T00:45:00.000-05:00

I have wisteria in bloom!

I've always loved wisteria and have been jealous of friends in Seattle and California who are flooded with lovely blossoms each spring.

Despite planting the first of my three wisteria vines more than ten years ago, last year was the first year I had any blossoms - and those were just a few miniscule buds. They were hardly worth noting, except as a portent of things to come.

This particular plant is new, but it is also located in full sun. I fear the other vines are too shaded to bloom, so that makes these blossoms extra special.

2006-06-04T20:01:00.000-05:00

The garden is in full bloom right now, making a lovely transition from spring into summer.

2006-06-03T00:51:00.000-05:00

The peonies have been in full bloom for some time now, providing waves of pink throughout the yard.

I have herbaceous peonies with blossoms that range from the palest single pink to fluffy double raspberry. Some are plants that I've purchased over the years, but a number of them are one my friend Lia gave me from her garden before she left Saint Paul.

I think of her every time I see the full pink blossoms.

(Lia, I still have the loquat tree too. Right now it is summering up on the third-floor deck.)

2006-05-28T16:00:00.000-05:00

We spent the morning draining the pond and potting (or repotting) a LOT of pond plants.

It is quite hot and humid here today, so once the sun came around for the afternoon, we abandoned the project for the rest of the day. I'll keep the waterlilies watered down and they should be ok for the day. Tomorrow morning we'll get everything plunked back in.

This doesn't really show the mess I have, but trust me, there are pots and plants and boards and tools scattered everywhere. Yeeks.

2006-05-28T01:07:00.000-05:00

No pictures today, although I really need to take some. Everything changes so fast this time of year.

I spent most of the morning further expanding the bed I was working on the other day. It is between the deck and the garage and the soil is both rock hard and full of rocks after years of abuse - including being scraped and trample by machinery when we put the pond in. Just getting a fork into the ground is almost impossible (even for Lane). I should have put down newspaper and a thick layer of marsh hay last summer - by now the grass and weeds would be dead and the top layer of the soil a little more workable. Of course, I didn't do that and the plants I ordered in March have now arrived and need planting.

It's slow going, which has given me plenty of time to think:

I think I should have taken some "before" pictures showing what the yard (front and back) looked like when we moved in.

I think I need to give up hoping I'll be able separate and move some of my shrub planting errors. I need to just cut them down and be done with it.

I think I need to use poison on the Canadian thistle that has invaded the woodland bed. While I'm at it, I should also give up and poison the last of the bittersweet that I planted along the fence about 12 years ago and have been trying to eradicate for the past ten.

I think gardening would be so much easier if I had not inherited and/or planted invasive things like purple bellflower (the purple plant from hell, as we call it around here), ferns, bittersweet, etc. (But the ferns and bittersweet SEEMED like such a good idea at the time. At least it wasn't mint and bee balm this time!)

I still think this will all get easier once I am done establishing new beds and just have to maintain the ones I already have! (Foolish thought, I know.)

2006-05-25T22:49:00.000-05:00

Spring is clearly coming to an end in the garden, with a tree peony, bridal wreath, windflowers, and iris all coming into full bloom.

On the other hand, the azaleas are still putting on a good show -- providing that final taste of spring.

It seems like a good time to relax in the yard and enjoy the show.

2006-05-22T23:55:00.000-05:00

I got the first of the tomatoes in late this afternoon, all of them now snug in their wall-o-waters.

2006-05-19T23:36:00.000-05:00

Most of the azaleas I have are later blooming varieties, so I've had to wait awhile for them. It was worth it though, as they are absolutely glorious now!

Despite the dominance of the azaleas, there are other things in the garden worthy of admiration, for example:

While the rest of the trillium are pretty much past their peak, the lemony yellow ones still have nice color.
The white bleeding heart is still brightening a dark corner.

The hosta are starting to come into their own

One clematis is covered with blossoms. (The others are taking their time.)

The Jack-in-the-pulpit are replacing the trilliums in the wildflower beds.

Japanese and ghost ferns are showing off.

Along with the wild columbine, which have been blooming for weeks, their domestic cousins have begun to put on a show.

Even the bridal wreath is beginning to join in.

2006-05-15T20:49:00.000-05:00

Spring is really and truly here.

In the front yard, the tulips are coming to an end, but the azaelas are starting to open.

Along the side, I still have lots of clean-up to finish, but the bleeding hearts, trillium, and Virginia bluebells add flashes of color amidst the ferns and hosta along the fence and into the wildflower bed in the back yard.

I have one, and only one, Mayflower in the wildflower bed, but it seems healthy and happy.

Calling this my wildflower bed is a bit of a misnomer, it also has lilacs (including a particularly lovely Moscow Nights), a clump of iris and some peonies by the pond, clematis on the fence, and a few other non-wildflower plants. But MOSTLY it has wildflowers.

2006-05-07T21:05:00.000-05:00

There are still a few tulips blooming in the front yard.

Also in front, the remains of my flowering almond is trying to put on a show. Two winters ago I lost almost the entire bush. This year it is trying to make a comeback, but is having a tough time of it. I'm glad to see it might make it -- it is one of my favorites.

A friend wrote and suggested I post some pictures of the overall yard. In exchange she now has to send me some shots of her yard -- my yard is still a mess (note the bag of leaves still sitting on the walkway) so I don't usually show it off, but she lives in Hawaii and I am eager to see what her (also still-in-process yard) looks like. So here are shots of my front, east side, and backyard flower gardens. . .

More to come.

2006-05-04T00:20:00.000-05:00

We've had days and days of gentle rain and now everything is bright green and growing so quickly I can almost watch the garden change moment by moment.

2006-04-27T21:39:00.000-05:00

In the front yard, species tulips have been thriving in the deep shade of the north side of the house.

More of the much-anticipated pasque flowers are blooming in the boulevard.

2006-04-26T23:20:00.000-05:00

The wildflowers I've planted are blooming.

I have been worrying that my pasque flowers weren't going to return this year, but the purple ones have been putting on quite a show for the past few days. (I also have some wine red ones -- which really aren't wildflowers -- that I love, but which haven't proved to be as hardy.)

I've transplanted a lot of trilliums over the years and now am starting to get large clumps of lovely white flowers each spring. Trilliums used to grown in the woods at an Aunt's house when I was growing up and they always seemed magical.

They are still among my absolute favorite flowers.

I've also planted red trillium, which have lovely red buds, but no flowers to speak of. On the other hand, they have gorgeous variegated foliage that more than makes up for the nondescript blossoms.

I've been trying to get hepatica going and am finally starting to see some success.

2006-04-25T22:54:00.000-05:00

On the ground. . .

. . . and in the air.

2006-04-23T21:50:00.000-05:00

Trees are the highlight of my yard this week.

My favorite cherry is still blooming.

The "Butterflies" magnolia that I planted shortly after we moved here continues to put on a gorgeous show each spring despite the fact that it has had to bend away from the neighbor's maples to get adequate sun.

The pear I planted last year is also blooming. . . maybe there will be fruit this fall!

Soon I will have lilacs blooming too. Earlier than usual, from the look of things.

Of course, there are things blooming closer to the ground too.

The regal red tulips that were here when we moved in have continued to thrive despite all matter of abuses and neglect. They were such a pleasant surprise the first year we were here. At one point I knew what type they were -- an old variety that could well have been part of the original garden.

What I like most about them, however, is the living link they provide to the history of this house. I know the McConnons saw these same tulips and perhaps the families who lived here even before them enjoyed this cheery blossoms at the start of every spring.

I've been filling in around the tulips with wildflowers, including Virginia Bluebells and hepatica.

I've used creeping flox in various colors to soften the edges of the pond.

A member of my family of garden girls keeps watch over it all from a bush that needs trimming!

2006-04-22T21:39:00.000-05:00

My favorite cherry tree is now blooming, the one that -- if I can beat the squirrels -- gives me huge, sweet, dark red cherries. We considered taking it down to build the garage. . . I'm glad we didn't.

Still waiting for the trilliums, but the red ones, with their fabulous mottled leaves should open any day now.

There are still tulips blooming. This was one of the ones I moved a couple of years ago. It took them a year to recover from the shock, but they have recovered. Yay!

The prairie smoke has actually been blooming for a week or more now, but I hadn't quite gotten around to photographing it. Now it is really looking wonderful. It's odd though, I think of the pasque flowers as the first prairie flowers of spring, but this year they seem to be languishing while the prairie smoke takes over. I'm not sure why that would be.

After taking their own good time, the peas I planted are finally poking above the soil. Yay!

2006-04-14T18:31:00.000-05:00

Wow! My neighbor's magnolia has popped open today!

2006-04-13T18:30:00.000-05:00

No yard work today.

I spent the day traveling to and from Duluth for work and all I want to do is relax on the front porch. But first I have to check on the yard. . . and am amazed at how spring seems to have suddenly arrived!

Of course the chinodoxa is still blooming in the boulevard.

The blood root has taken hold in the new locations where I added it last fall. (I love blood root, it was always such a rare treat to find a patch of it when I was growing up.)

There are more crocuses in bloom today -- evidently the bloodmeal was sufficient to keep the rabbits away this year!

Soon there will be trilliums . . .

. . . and tree peonies.

Best of all, however, is my neighbor's yard, where the forsythia forms a huge golden cloud. I LOVE forsythia, but have never had a place to plant it (it needs sun and gets so big!), so am grateful to my neighbor for finding space for it in her yard.

She also has a lovely pink magnolia that is just about ready to burst into bloom.

I think spring is here.

2006-04-11T21:55:00.000-05:00

I hurried home after work to finish yesterday's project. . . and succeeded! Now I have a reasonably clean vegetable bed (I'm sure I missed some crabgrass and prairie plants that will re-emerge to haunt me) that is fully planted with fava beans, peas, lettuce, and radishes.

I see the pale pinkish purple Chinodoxa are blooming.

I also suddenly become aware that the lilacs are leafing out.

Someone once told me that the morel mushrooms are ready when the lilac leaves are the size of a squirrel's ear. Must be time to start searching for them!

attacking the abandoned bed

2006-04-10T20:49:00.000-05:00

The temperature was over 70 today.

To make the most of this fact, I went into work a half-hour early and then left equally early so I could spend some time in the vegetable garden. (I will pay for this later in the week, as I really need to put in some overtime, but I'm hoping it will be raining by then!) While it was tempting to go for a walk or do something fun, I not only went out to toil in the vegetable garden, but I went out and started on the worst, most over-grown and abandoned bed in the garden.

This bed was built by an architect who has since moved from the neighborhood. The bed is beautiful and elegant. . . non-functional and poorly constructed. Rather than rebuild it, I have mostly ignored it for the past few years -- promising myself each spring that as soon as I get the rest of the veggie beds cleaned and planted, I will clean the weeds and (very deeply rooted) prairie flowers out of this bed and fill it with flowers. Of course, this never actually happens.

This year, acknowledging that this was the perfect spot to plant peas, I started with this bed and the horrid mess growing in it.

As you can see, I have not finished, but one end is done and planted with peas, radishes, and lettuce.

marsh marigolds (cowslips)

2006-04-09T23:57:00.000-05:00

I grew up in a rural area with a creek. The pussy willow would bloom as early as late February, but it wasn't spring until the wetlands sprouted brilliant yellow clumps of marsh marigolds. They were my favorite spring flower -- perhaps because of their relentless cheerfulness or maybe just because they were the first thing to turn green and bloom. Today they still say "spring" like nothing else.

Now I have a garden pond in my yard and I grow them myself. Even in my yard, where they compete with the crocuses and bloodroot, they are still among the first flowers to bloom each spring.

Today spring arrived in my yard.

blogging in order to remember

2006-04-08T21:02:00.000-05:00

Today I discovered I have several white crocuses blooming in my front flower garden.

I don't have many planted there and think I will have to add more, but I know I won't remember that when fall comes around.

This makes me think I should start a garden journal to keep track of this kind of information, but I have tried that before and have never managed to keep it up. . . So I am going to try this instead. I'm will keep my gardening notes here and you can follow my successes and failures, provide advice and encouragement, or chide me when I am a bad gardener (or a negligent poster)! This also gives me a way to show-off my garden to distant friends. . .

I'll probably post a couple of old shots too, just so you can see what is to come.

2006-04-04T21:26:00.000-05:00

Ok, I know this is cheating, but I have tried to grow cacti on and off since I was in third grade AND (with the exception of a weird cast-off cactus a former house cleaner gave me that periodically sprouts into huge magenta flowers that look like mutant Christmas cactus blossoms) I have never, ever had one bloom before. I didn't really believe it was possible to get one to bloom inside.

Despite the orchids in bloom all around it, this is the highlight of the office window sill garden this week.

Best of all, there are a bunch more tiny buds, so I should have blossoms off and on for months now.