Category: gardening

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.)