GOOD GARDEN DAYS

Hope y'all will indulge me with another garden/flower post. This time of year, when the temps are warm and plants start to awaken and poke through the earth and grow, and early spring flowers are blooming, I'm as happy as can be out in the gardens cleaning up the beds, planting new plants, making divisions.

(hmmm, I'm pretty sure that was a massive run-on sentence!)

The Bleeding Hearts are in full bloom. What an amazing flower!

This past Sunday and Monday I spent literally all day, both days, from morning till after dinner working in the gardens and the landscape beds. I was in my glory. The hours just flew by.

The Lilac has more flower bracts this year than ever!

The temps were perfect with occasional slight breezes bringing in the scents of lilacs, mountain pinks and cherry blossoms. The sounds of chirping birds (and that not so delightful cawing crow!), and the wind rustling through the pines created the best background music for working. It was a perfect couple days for me.

Sunday I cleaned up the veg/cutting garden and gave the soil a good tilling. I'll till it a couple more times, and amend with composted cow manure just before planting next month.

From a yucky, ugly patch of weeds . . .

to freshly tilled garden soil. A thing of beauty!

My absolute favorite spring-blooming tree, the Kwanzan Cherry, is on the verge of a full pop of flowers. This tree gets totally covered with blossoms that remind me of tiny carnations.

I put some new plants in the ground. New white Columbine and blue Pincushion Flower to the pond-side bed joining the white Goats Beard and red Astilbe. I'm hoping for a terrific show of color in about a month.

Looks like we have a new inhabitant in the pond!

On Monday I spent a good part of the morning doing the Spring clean-up job I HATE!!! Cleaning the deck railings. They get so grimey and dirty through the summer and winter. The almost 2-1/2 hours spent to wipe down each individual baluster and top and bottom railings is worth it in the end.

Ewwww!!! Dirty!

Ahhh . . . nice and clean!

Finally!!! I planted two Knock-Out Roses in the border of the perennial garden.

I've been wanting a few of these for several years. Now, I'll just have to be patient for a couple years for them to get some growth and get loaded with their non-stop show of roses. You know what they say about perennials . . .

"the first year they sleep,

the second year they creep,

the third year they leap!".

Another favorite, the Pieris Japonica, gives show all year long.

In early Spring, it puts on it's show of cascading, slightly fragrant bell-shaped blooms. In Winter, some of the foliage takes on a reddish tint. I like to cut pieces of this shrub to add to my outside evergreen arrangements at Christmas.

This Blue Atlas Cedar is a very special tree to me. I call it my "Princess Diana" tree.

The morning after we purchased this tree and planned to plant it back in August of 1997, was the day the world mourned her death. I remember helping my Hubby plant this tree; my heart heavy with sorrow. I was a huge fan. And like so many others, her death created terrible sadness for me.

Funny, seems everything we would plant in this spot would fail.

This tree has absolutely thrived!

Something not so pretty, but worth sharing . . .

my compost bin!

I have two of these little monsters. They create what us gardener's refer to as "black gold". These bins don't produce enough compost to amend my vege garden every year, but they do help me amend the perennial bed and holes for new plantings. Anything compostable gets added to these bins.

And since Monday is wash day for bed linens, I was able to take advantage of the weather and hang the sheets on the line. There's nothing like the smell of fresh, line-dried sheets when you slip into bed!

That's the herb garden, there, next to the clothes line. I'll be spending some time in that bed today. Unfortunately, I lost a few herb plants this winter, and the wild onions are having a field day out there!

So much work to do, but so rewarding. I can't wait for consistently warmer temps when we can spend as much time as possible outside. The big project we're doing outside this Spring is the addition of a brick patio just off the deck. I'm so excited! I've been wanting to start this project for many years. I love our deck, but it sometimes makes me feel removed from the yard and gardens. Having a patio will put us right down there at ground level where we can really see and enjoy the yard and gardens. I'll sure to document all the back-breaking work on that project once we start!

Thanks for visiting!

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