Easter = Spring

Happy Easter! I am enchanted by all things spring in my neighborhood right now. The grass is so green you would think it is not real, and trees are starting to explode in leaves.

As you are facing the house, this is on the left, but I'm looking down the hill at the three new allium I planted in fall, plus the foxgloves and anemones returning for action.

This is a previously planted allium but what's interesting is that behind it, there is a single stalk of an allium that did come up and bloom last year - but it has no leaves this year. Wonder what happened, and will it bloom?

Apparently I should have pruned the baptisia to the ground last year. Must get on it now!

The backyard hydrangea starting to leaf, and the ever-reliable bleeding heart, which will probably perish when work begins on the yard.

Daffodils close to the house.

Daffodils along the back wall of the back yard, planted my first year in the house and returning strong! Not all of them did so.

These may be the only hens and chicks that survived the winter.

I am still hoping these are self-sown Larkspur in the foreground - also note the healthy-looking allium transplanted from the back yard!

Hydrangea and mystery weeds.

Remember I was worried this peony wouldn't come back? Wonder if it will bloom this year, unlike last year?

Lilac is preparing to bloom

Glorious lungwort in the back plot, about to be displaced with our planned yard work.

This phlox patch grows every year, to my delight

Robust poppies, but not sending up any flower stems yet

These very little purple-flowered weeds (a violet variety, perhaps?) are scattered around the back yard and we like them

This is one site of the seedlings we transplanted earlier this month from our mini-greenhouses. Frankly they were too little to transplant but the timing of our vacation last week was such that I thought we might as well stick them in the ground and see what happened. I bet a few of them will make it.

Another seedling site

The foot of one of the back yard trees. I like this scene. Kind of fairy-friendly.

The perennial tulips are returning!

The viburnum is blooming beautifully. Both bushes.

Endless enchantments of spring

Every time I walk outside I see exciting progress among the plants, and the temptation is there to photograph everything. So I do!

I could not possibly be more delighted that the allium in the back plot is now two alliums, both with buds.

The foxgloves in the back plot are looking very robust, and you can see also the other things looking good in the back (left to right: forget-me-nots, artemisia, lungwort, aster, the small white allium).

Our cherry tree has always been a little half-assed, but nonetheless, its blooms are appreciated.

The two-year-old daffodils in the back didn't all do so well this year - especially the frilly stinky ones. Maybe because of the weather.

These look good, though! I really need to get rid of the last of the leaves. They are all piled in corners like this.

As the early daffodils on the right are spent, the ones on the left are in their prime, though not so great this year.

I should have captured these a week or so ago at their peak, but they did well. The little ones. None of the grape hyacinth  made it though - deer?

See the red peony shoot in the front! I thought it had perhaps been uprooted or simply didn't survive, but I am so pleased to be wrong.

This is the lavender I cut all the leaves on in the fall, wondering whether it was better to leave them or cut them. The one one which I left them is below, on the top right of the photo. I am still not sure what was the better course of action.

I like this little spot in the front, with the stones and all the different colors and textures of plant, all very close together. Want to replicate this everywhere.

The poppies! I am so proud of the poppies! Also the onesie daffodil in back that really needs to be dug up and propagated (scooped/scored/scaled) because a onesie is ridiculous,

Front left

Front right

Emma and I transplanted the zinnias, cornflowers, and gypsophila today.

Garden happenings

Most of the mini-greenhouses are now sporting little sprouts, the exceptions being foxgloves and peppers.

Allium

Gypsophila

Sweet pea

Also, everything else around the yard is looking stupendous and full of promise.

Magnolia

Alliums in the front yard

Perennial tulips... please don't let them get eaten before blooming!

April 19, 2017

Side-by-side comparisons of the front at this time of year are below. There were more daffodils than I remembered that didn't make it back this year, but the main takeaway is that everything else looks a little behind this year - no surprise whatsoever, given that spring only just showed up. Note the viburnum already blooming this time last year.

April 18, 2018

Finally, yesterday I saw an Eastern Towhee (bird) in the bush, and today a pair of chickadees made an appearance.