Lurking under leaves

I finished raking today!

I found a few things lurking under the leaves.

There were two of these little lizards (although both pictures are of one). Last year I mistakenly identified these as salamanders, but as my dad pointed out when he saw a dead one a couple weeks ago, they have scales. So lizards.

Why are the alliums coming up already (foreground)?! Is this very bad? Is it because the leaves kept the ground warm?
Also the nettles and forget-me-not still look very much alive, despite winter. We'll have more frost later this week so we'll see what happens.

And what are these coming up in front, in my tulip patch? Crocuses from last year, it looks like?

Not pictured: some fat slugs, which were dispatched.

Bulb planting map

I finished planting bulbs ages ago but forgot to post the map.

I am still raking, of course, but the end is near. I probably will have done about 50-60 bags this year when all is said and done. I didn't do the front because we paid someone, so that probably accounts for the difference from last year (75ish), and maybe I got more efficient (I now know to rake when the leaves are damp, because they pack best).

I have started looking for a replacement for the threadleaf coreopsis moonbeam that did so poorly in my back plot last year. I see mixed things about the need for sun among moonshine achillea (yarrow, A. hybrida), and mixed things about deer resistance among shasta daisies. Yellow corydalis (Corydalis lutea = Pseudofumaria lutea) seems like it is worth a shot.

Bulbs peeking up from the soil

Spring is coming tomorrow, TOMORROW, I have judged by the weather forecast, and I won't be talked out of it. I am very excited! It was an overall mild winter and I tried to embrace it, but now that it is over, I am willing to admit that I never liked it. Still, I will try again next winter.

But moving on: my bulbs are coming up! I cleared leaves off them today, and cleaned up some of the many, many, many twigs and branches that fell in our yard over the winter. And I turned the compost pile a bit, and added some deer poo from the yard. The matter is composting, albeit more slowly than it should, I'm sure because it gets very little sun.

Daffodils along the back wall

More daffodils along the back wall

Crocuses in the front, by the garage. This is also where I planted the tulips, quite deeply, and there is no sign of them yet.

Crocus along the walk in the front. It appears to have been chewed off by wildlife. Boooooo.

Daffodils by the front steps. I forgot I had even planted any there!

This is one of the red tulips that were already in front of our house, to the left of the steps as you face the house, when we moved in. It was literally growing through several leaves (so funny that the leaves didn't move out of the way!), so I pulled those off and moved the leaves aside - see below.

Some bad news: The wall in the back has started to fall down, on the northern end. We had some hard rains in the last couple months and I guess they proved too much for the wall. I suppose we will have to have the whole thing replaced at some point - my preference would be to put up something similar, using the same stones, because I do like the way the wall looks, and it photographs so nicely - I think it makes our yard look like a park in photos.

Spring in December

This "winter" to date has featured some extraordinarily warm weather. Cherry trees are blossoming around the neighborhood! And inevitably, some of my bulbs are peeking up from the ground. I have no idea what this means for spring.

Unrelatedly, I must note that I am STILL RAKING. As of today, I could be done, but there are some leaves left on the back lawn - if it doesn't get cold/snowy, I'll get 'em eventually. I had no idea fall clean-up would extend through December. We have A LOT OF TREES.

Still more bulbs

I finally finished planting all the darned bulbs today. And I finished my map of where they are - they're in the red spots.

My dad was here over the last several days and he voluntarily did a lot of raking! But there are still...so...many...leaves. I keep making trips to the dump with them.

Look how gorgeous the Japanese maple is in the background!

More bulbs

Planting bulbs has been harder work than I anticipated, because I am battling rocks and roots and finding things like shards of glass in the soil.

Today I wanted to put the tulip bulbs in the front, close the the garage, where I think the deer are least likely to go. I was digging and in addition to a crazy number of rocks, there were enormous chunks of concrete down there, clearly having been used as filler by the guys who worked on the garage. Removing them took a lot of effort, but I did it, and stuck the bulbs in as deep as I could (probably about a foot), having read that planting them deep (ideally about 20") increases their chances of coming up multiple years in a row. I had always thought of tulips as perennials and was surprised to read recently that a lot of them only come up once, then die due to suffering from too much moisture or other bad conditions. And indeed, that has happened to me; but I thought it was just my bad luck.

This is where the tulips went

I still have a lot of bulbs left to plant! My arms ache at the prospect, but the weather is supposed to be lovely this week and I don't have too much work on my plate, so I'll get it done.

A bee found my plot of the property (still in progress) a nice resting spot. It was sluggish and I blew it off the paper and into the chrysanthemum.

After planting, Emma and I went in back to look for fairies.

Planting bulbs

SUCH a gorgeous Indian summer day today! The temperature moseyed up to the mid-seventies. I took advantage by planting some of my bulbs along the back wall of the back yard - daffodils and Spanish bluebells. They all called for "full to part sun" so I hope there is enough light for them. I also hope squirrels and chipmunks don't dig them up.

I am making a map, based on the official survey of our property, of where I'm planting stuff, so I don't forget!