Garden happenings

Back on May 12, I took pictures of what I think are all Spanish bluebells (though they could have been the "mystery" lily I got for free when I ordered bulbs).

Around the same time, there were lots of baby chipmunks around. They weren't much smaller than the adult chipmunks, but they seemed a little less savvy than their elders, somehow, and they would sometimes poke their heads from a hole in bunches of two or three!

On May 16, I used Pat's camera to get elusive photos of a magnolia warbler.

And today, I got a terrible picture (more my style) of a Baltimore oriole.

Here we showcase both a lovely butterfly and the rhododendrons in full swing.

Plants in the back plot at last!

I finally made the time to get plants (from Williams Nursery in Westfield, where Linda Williams very kindly picked out specimens for me before I arrived) and put them in the back plot per my design! The biggest hitch was that while my design had called for nine lungwort plants, they were a shocking $20 each (quite large, and messy-looking), so I cut back to three and put in some perennial forget-me-nots and dead nettles instead.

Note that the plan above is from the opposite perspective of the photo below - picture sitting on the chairs in the photo, and sketching the plan. So, for example, lungwort is on the right in the plan, but the left in the photo.

Light-colored plant in foreground is wormwood. Small plants are ageratum. 2 plants with pink flowers in foreground is forget-me-not. Large green-leafed plants at back of plot are asters. You can't really see the dead nettles or lungwort behind the topiary.

Also, Williams did not have moonbeam threadleaf coreopsis in stock, so there are a few gaps yet to be filled. And, as anticipated, I'll need to wait till fall to add the ornamental onion, because those are bulbs.

On right, lungwort. Dead nettles visible between the asters.

I also got some brachscome (it did so well last year), portulaca, and lantana to fill in some gaps in the front, and some ageratum left over from the back plot went there too.

Ageratum, Spanish bluebells (from planting last fall), and brachyscome.

Brachyscome, next to what's left of the daffodil leaves.

Portulaca (between last year's wormwood and daffodil leaves)

Lantana, nestled below the peonies along with lavender.

Finally, digging in the front, I turned up this guy:

Friends enlightened me that Catholics may bury St. Joseph (upside down, facing the house) in front of their home to speed its sale! Who knows how long he was buried, since we believe neither of the last two sets of owners were Catholics.

Live oven-bird, and dead flicker

Today there was an Oven-Bird outside the solarium - a first for me to see one of those. I did not get a decent picture but here's one from the web:

Then later I discovered a dead flicker in the back yard. It wasn't there in the morning, and I have no idea how it died - I didn't turn it over to see whether it had marks on it.

Seedlings and grass seed

On Mother's Day, instead of giving myself poison ivy as I did last year, I cleared out the plot in the back that I redesigned in my garden design class. It was hard work, since it seems never to have been improved by whatever stupid person last planted things there, and so no wonder the topiary was the only thing left standing. Anyway, I hauled out a ton of the clay soil and used it to fill patches in the lawn caused by years-ago tree removal and the (huge) "divets" caused by taking down the tree recently, then I put grass seed in those spots.

My little helper.  Naturally the hose did not reach as far as all my grass spots, so we're using the watering can, like people with nothing better to do.

The grass seed spots. Most are at the top of the hill.

I also finally got around to planting the poor trapped seedlings in my mini-greenhouses. They were in there soooooo long. Heaven only knows whether they will make it in their new homes, plus what kind of crazy person creates a box of basil, marigold, and poppies? The kind who is exhausted from hauling clay around her yard, that's what kind. Whatever. I can transplant them later if any of them even make it.

Poppies and alyssum.

Basil, marigolds, and poppies....why? Why not.

Are my lavender seeds still in the fridge? Of course they are. Get over it.

Azaleas and bumblebee

Goodbye, dead trees

SavATree removed chopped down three dead or dying trees last weekend, including the three-trunked monster (and its sidekick, the scraggly pine) in front. I now need to decide whether I can stomach putting another, albeit smaller, tree there when Birch Hill Landscaping re-does that spot.

We left a stump in back so Emma can play on it. As you can see from the chainsaw wound, they nearly cut the whole thing down, but Pat flagged it in time.

And the third tree was on the side of our house - we left most of the trunk as a draw for wildlife and because we like seeing the trunk out our windows.

And here is what the flowers look like in front these days. They really need some serious company. It has been raining a ton here and I have been working quite a bit, so I haven't found the time.

Wormwood in foreground; lavender behind it. I cut both back to nothing in early spring.

Phlox

What the heck are these plants?

This curly tree was in Bromley, England. Love it.

And this yellow flowering shrub is across the street. There is also a version in pink in front of another house.

This yellow one below is gorgeous, isn't it?