Category Archives: bulbs

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – May 2014

bulbs, gate bed, loki bed, sidewalk bed, spring, Uncategorized

May Bloom Day is upon us! The end of last week and over the weekend we had some warmer weather during an otherwise cool Spring. It took just those handful of days for the tulips to bloom and the trees to leaf out. My allergies have also been telling me the garden is now is full swing.

Last season we had three arborvitae removed from in front of our porch. They were planted very close to the porch and also had grown tall enough to block our view. This left a large area we decided to plant with a variety of early to mid spring tulips.

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This next little plant is Rock Cress (Arabis sturii). There are rocks placed behind our backyard gate door, so a ground cover was needed to dress up the area. This plant receives morning sun and doesn’t grow much larger than shown.

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All the Labrador Violets are in bloom around foundation in both the backyard and along the east side of the house.

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Last season Sweet Woodruff (Galium odoratum) was planted in the backyard on the north side of the house. It isn’t quite in bloom yet, but I’m not sure if it will make it to June Bloom Day. We placed the Woodruff near our finch feeder at the kitchen window to help camouflage the discarded thistle seed. This ground cover is quite content in the shade.

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This is one of my favorite plants on the Lot. The Foam Flower is so delicate and pretty, yet quite a tough plant. In the foreground of the photo, the Snow Angle Coral Bell is just beginning to send up its flower stalks.

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This is the Bleeding Heart, one of the first perennials we planted on the Lot when we moved into our home in 2008. Even after a tussle with an aggressive Trumpet Vine last season, it’s still going strong. There are a handful of Forget-Me-Not and Grape Hyacinth in the foreground.

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Here is the Cranesbill brightening up the walkway back to the compost bin beside the garage. This plant lived on the Lot before we did.

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The variegated Solomon’s Seal is in the process of blooming at the edge of Loki’s flowerbed.

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This is the remainder of that same bed. The Lenten Rose, Forget-Me-Not, and Grape Hyacinth are all blooming here.

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Here is the Mt Airy Fothergilla putting on its Spring show. The flowers are likened to bottlebrushes in appearance. Upon further inspection, this is because the flower on Fothergilla are only filaments and have no actual petals.

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Here are more Grape Hyacinth! It seems I will never have to plant a single one of these bulbs on the Lot again. Oh, there is also the lovely dandelion in the bottom left.

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That is all to share from the Lot this Bloom Day. Be sure to visit May Dreams Gardens to see what is blooming in gardens around the rest of the world!

Signs of Spring

bulbs, pruning, spring cleanup, ,

This past Saturday was sunny and warm, so the four-legged garden help and I headed outside on the Lot to poke around a bit. It actually hit 50 degrees and once I was moving around and working, I even had to shed my coat. Cabin fever is at an all time high and I just needed to dig and/or prune something. The trick is to get the gardening fix without prompting any plants into an early flush of new growth. Signs of spring greeted me all over the Lot.

Turning Over the Beds

4x4 Raised BedsThe week or so of warmer weather and sun had melted all the snow away from the Lot.  The shredded leaves and grass clipping my Other Half and I had piled high onto the veggie beds last fall had broken down over the winter. Only a thin layer of compacted leaves remained level with the edges of the bed. Since the soil wasn’t frozen, I took a shovel and turned over the soil to mix in the remaining leaves. And yes, that is a jack-o-lantern.

First Arrivals

Emerging SedumA favorite sign of spring on the Lot for me is the emerging sedum. I leave the stalks of the various sedum standing throughout the winter since the snow is pretty on the spent blooms. This time of year I clip back the stalks to around 4″. While doing so, often the very beginning of new growth is just visible. Is it weird I find these little buds freakin’ adorable?

Lenten RoseAnother early emerging plant on the Lot is the lenten rose tucked away by the back door. This guy has saw-toothed evergreen foliage I leave like the sedum during the winter and trim back this time of year.

Other trimming this past weeekend included cutting down the maiden grass to about 6″ so the bleeding heart just breaking ground can receive more sun. The false indigo stalks were trimmed back to 4″ so the area will be ready for the tulips whose foliage showed up this week. Finally, I cut back some mums, rue, and wand flower.

What Up My Finches?!… and Robin

So, another favorite sign of spring on the Lot is when the goldfinches at the kitchen window feeder begin to look a bit rough around the edges. During the winter, the male goldfinch retires his flashy duds and black cap. All the finches are the same dirty yellow or dusty olive color. However, when winter is on it’s way out, the finches molt and patches of brilliant yellow begin to show again. My Other Half and I imagine this awkward stage before the mating season to be much like adolescence. This comparison works well with the finches squeaky, questioning-like call.

Finally, on Easter morning, I saw my first robin. Even though there may be a sprinkling of snow and many frosty mornings still ahead, I do believe spring is here. Are you noticing the arrival of spring? Any favorite signs?

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – March 2013

bulbs, fellow gardeners, spring,

There are only a few photos to share today for the March 2013 Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day. We had a sunny day yesterday on the Lot that caused a few of the spring bulbs to push further out of the ground. A single yellow crocus was in bloom, but I didn’t get a picture of it today. The blossom was closed up due to the overcast skies.

The first spring flower to show in number has been the snowdrops my Other Half so lovingly plunked into the ground in a matter of minutes in fall 2011. We both noticed the little bulbs are already growing in number and spreading. Here they are growing in both a bed directly behind our house and in a bed at the southwest corner of the garage.

Snowdrops SnowdropsDaffodils, a few tulips, and some star of Bethlehem are all beginning to peak up through the ground. The south bed at the front of the house is always ahead and brings a lot of the Lot’s early spring flowers. Hopefully I will be able to share those during next month’s Bloom Day.

PrimroseHere is a little primrose keeping me company in my home office. It bloomed just in time for March Bloom Day. Outside I hear the first of the Canadian Geese returning from their winter migration. We have lost a lot of our snow, but the weather remains cold which is good. Though it was lovely strolling down the road and seeing trees in bloom at the end of last March, it really messed up the fruit crops in our state. The sudden, late frost killed a lot of blossoms. Hopefully this year we will be able to more naturally ease into spring.

Anything interesting blooming in your garden this month? Make sure to visit May Dreams Gardens who hosts Bloom Day. It’s always a lot of fun to see what other gardeners around the world have blooming.