The Snow Is Gone

3/15/14

The snow we had the first week of March.

The snow took its time retreating because of the bitterly cold temps.  Eight degrees one morning on our thermometer!  So I went out and bought myself some tulips at the grocery store.

Now after four days at or near 60 degrees, the snow is gone, and the crocus seemed to instantly appear.

The tulips whose tips had just emerged at the end of January have stared growing with the warm temperatures.

My exploration of the backyard garden sans snow revealed the first green leaves of the primrose.

In the backyard garden I also found the first hellebore blossom.

After all the snow and ice storms, the nandina bush has lost a lot of leaves and is looking kind of shabby.

Poking around the front garden I found a hyacinth emerging just in time for the first day of spring this coming Friday.

The Backyard Garden Evolves

6/23/13 

backyard garden November 2012

     




     This is a photo of the backyard garden taken when we bought the house at the end of November.  There was nothing in the garden but two rose bushes. 

April 2013

 
     I threw some daffodils into the garden in December so there would be some color in the spring.

June 2013

                                      This is a photo of the garden today.

hostas

               The first plants I bought in the spring for the garden were hostas.

hostas planted

                               Here are what the hostas look like now.

hardy begonias

                   The next plants to go in the garden were hardy begonias.

Japanese anemones

                                      I added some Japanese anemones.

annuals

                 For a quick splash of color, I put in some petunias, new guinea impatiens and alyssum.

boxwoods and nandinas

     Dividing the backyard garden are five boxwood and three nandina bushes which were here when we bought the house.  Some of the boxwoods will be transplanted to other areas of the yard eventually.  Among the bushes I planted a ghost fern, some sweet woodruff and primula.  These were given to me by a gardening friend.




ghost fern

 

sweet woodruff

primula

tulips

     On the other side of the bushes there is a pink dogwood tree under which I planted tulips in the spring.

begonias

      Now a mix of red, white and pink begonias occupies the space where the tulips were.  This garden is still a work in progress.  More plants will be added in the future.

Little By Little

4/21/13

kwanzan cherry

     Well, our ten days of warm weather are gone with that storm front that moved through two nights ago.  Now we are back down in the 30's at night and only in the 50's during the day.  There is a frost warning tonight.  This cool weather is going to continue for a week.  But during these recent warm days, I've watched my yard come into bloom.

     Just as all the Yoshino cherry trees lost their blossoms, the one kwanzan cherry tree in the yard burst into bloom.

white dogwood

 

pink dogwood

     There are two dogwood trees in the yard, one white and one pink, and they finally bloomed after the cherry trees.

Japanese maple

     The Japanese maple suddenly had leaves when I looked at it this past week.

tulips four days ago

tulips today

     The tulips I planted last fall are finally blooming.  I planted early, mid, and late blooming tulips, and they are all blooming at the same time.  Late in my opinion.  It is almost May.

daffodils

        The daffodils have all blossomed now.  Here are some in the back garden.

     I threw several daffodil bulbs in these three beds in the side yard late last fall, just after we closed on the house.  This area is going to have a makeover.  The wood is coming out, and the area will be one large, irregularly-shaped garden with perennial and annual flowers, and some bushes and grasses.

azalea bushes

     The azalea bushes in front of the house are ready to bloom.  So little by little, everything is coming into bloom, but it sure has been slow this spring.