Category: garden 2010

Can you believe it’s already time for the irises to be blooming again??

They’re magnificent this year, and there’s even the first pretty yellow rose to accompany them. But I can’t believe it’s already mid May. Time is flying.

The rosemary is blooming up a storm. Apparently the butchering I gave it last fall didn’t phase it in the least.

I spent the last few evenings cutting back the ferns now that all the fiddleheads are out and uncurling. They look so new and upright, especially compared to the last few weeks of bedraggled and lank.

At the ends of the rockwall, the pansies and forget-me-nots are running rampant at one end.

While the mint is truly taking over the other. (This was after a batch of mojitos, which didn’t even make a dent.)

Our flowers are continuing to give me joy. Such little bright spots in the yard. The latest round of bulbs are the tulips in containers.

There’s one lone white daffodil, and a slew of variegated peach blooms in the two containers.

There’s also a second round of a different type of tulip, all still green and closed tight.

What will they be? Such potential and mystery. Can’t wait to see what these bloom as.

My plan, once they’re done blooming, is to transplant these outside our bedroom window. We had the early spring crocuses and tulips, then these will be mid spring, and for summer I’ve planted a dinnerplate mix of dahlias, and Dandy and Ramona Gladiolas. It’s not fancy landscaping, but between the bulbs, the blueberry bushes, and the lavender, it makes me happy to look out that window.

In other plant news, the strawberries look great in their pot.

(I might need to get a second one! We certainly have space for it, and the more strawberries the better.)
And I’m still trying to figure out what these bulbs might be. Help?

We had a visitor tonight when we got home after work and daycare:

He was very quiet waiting for us to leave so that he could go back to eating our 14” tall grass. (Clearly the once-every-fortnight style of mowing is not hacking it. We’ll have to step it up a bit, apparently.)

You can also see the last of the tulips and the new azalea buds! Pretty. The mystery bulbs on the other side of the front yard are blooming and are nothing short of riotous.


Does anyone have a guess what they might be? The first year we lived here I didn’t much care for them but the more exuberant and out of control they get the more I like them. Pink, white and blue, with little bell shapes on a stalk that grows about 9” tall.

My gift to Kevin this year was houseplants (I know, too exciting), and we finally took our trip over to Molbak’s this weekend. Orange pots with pretty low-light plants for our almost-no-light bedroom:

Plus a pretty mix of green plants in a yellow pot that looks so sunny and cheerful in our kitchen.

(Shown with the still-blooming daffodils and brilliant azalea outside.)
A low planter for the coffee table in the family room and a tall mix for the living room, neither of which I have pictures of yet.

While we were there, we took advantage of the 30% off sale and bought blueberry bushes for the side yard outside our window – I’ve been wanting to plant some there almost since we moved in. The lavender I’ve been growing from seed can also go there (though I’m not sure what it will think of the acidic soil – an experiment). We left them in their pots overnight to make sure we had the placement right. Here’s a photo of the view before they went in the ground.

Kevin turned the perspective and got a photo of our pretty crocuses with the bedroom window in the background – lovely, especially given what a focus of my day these ones have become.

The squirrels continue to decimate them, but the petals look so pretty strewn about and knowing that they’re probably all about to vanish makes me enjoy the blooms even more every time I look out the window and they’re still there.

Meanwhile, the three beds of tulips continue to grow, and those buds are beginning to look promising.

March always seems to be the highwater mark for the moss.

Which is probably a good thing, given the state of our patio. (Photo by Kevin, with the macro lens.)

Nothing happier than crocuses in sunlight.

I love their orange innards – such a cheery burst of color.

Our ornamental plum tree on the patio is such a pathetic thing most of the year – one side is all scarred and lacks branches, and the rest of the tree still suffers from a horrendous pruning job years ago. But this is definitely the time of the year when you can look past all of its ugliness and focus on the beauty:

The blossoms are just so pretty.

All of the bulbs and plants in our yard are continuing to give me great joy. Last year, our yard was sort of overwhelming to me. This year, I feel slightly behind on the upkeep, but my sense of potential is back full force and I’m excited about all of the growing and planting and doing. Here’s a view of three minutes walking around the yard with a camera on the way to work this morning:

The minidaffodils in the rock wall continue to delight. I need to plant more of these. (This is the third year I’m saying this, but I’m actually writing it in my calendar for October this year, so maybe I will remember.)

Note also the periwinkle (one patch of about fifty).

You can see this crocus/tulip mix from our bedroom – gorgeous.

There are actually two groups of it (one in front of each pine tree) which is probably just as well, since one or the other seems to be in a state of perpetual carnage.

Dumb squirrels.

Our tree by the patio is all pink and blooming! Impossible to photograph (maybe Kevin would have more luck with fancy lenses?) but it’s such a pretty thing to look at when you come into the living room first thing in the morning or at the end of the workday.

Back through the house: the daffodils on the side of the house are starting to bloom! My policy is if they get top heavy and fall into the dirt, then I cut them and put them by the kitchen sink in the vase from our wedding reception. 🙂

Cheerful as all get out. I planted another 40 last fall, but still more would be awesome. I’m not sure there’s such a thing as too many daffodils.

In the front yard on the way to the car, the camellias are blooming!!!

That deserves a multitude of exclamation points, since both of the last two springs we’ve gotten a bloom or two max. Looks like pruning them when I did last year was the right time – I think that was June? Right now most of the blooms are tucked in against the house, but there’s a great view of them from the baby’s room. The white bush is also loaded with buds.