Tag Archives: tulips

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?

Double the Daffodils, Double the Fun

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I’m doing a bit of a time warp, using the date of my photos to backtrack and log the happenings about the lot. The crocuses have left our lot to be replaced by a whole-lotta tulips. The front bed is going bonkers with red and yellow tulips popping up all over. I’m seeing these tulips all over the neighborhood in the front of homes. Since our house was built in 1927, I’m wondering how old these flowers are. Was the neighborhood planted all at once? Were classic, red and yellow tulips in vogue one year? Or, maybe the bulbs have been divided over the years and gradually migrated down the streets, being handed from  neighbor to neighbor. 

As a pretty accent to the tulips, there are several groupings of double daffodils throughout this front bed. This is an introduction for me to the concept of “doubles.” A double flower has many overlapping petals that make the bloom appear very full. Personally, I think it makes the flower look like a poser, the flower actually wanting very much to be viewed as a type of rose. But, that does not mean I don’t find them pretty!

There are also some pink tulips and orange/yellow striped tulips in the southeast corner bed. Another orange/yellow striped tulips emerged from the sidewalk bed. In this bed, the scrawny, non-blooming peony from last year is well on it’s way with a full bunch of leaves. It has at least doubled in size. There are two other peonies in the backyard bed. Maybe I’ll see more than one bloom among the three of them for this year.

Bloom Update

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Wow. I had not realized how much time passed since I last made a post to the blog. I have to get better about making regular updates if I want this to be the handy garden tracker I’d hoped it to be.

Here are several more bulbs that popped over the last few weeks. This first is an Azure Grape Hyacinth ordered from Breck’s. I snapped the picture around the 15th of this month. The size of the mulch is a good indicator as to how little and dainty the flower is. The flowers pictured are planted in the main backyard bed, receiving sun all day long. The other five bulbs were planted in Loki’s garden, receiving a very small amount of sun in the morning hours. The buds of those are just breaking up through the leaves.

Saturday was absolutely gorgeous with sun, a nice breeze, and temperatures in the high 60s. My Ice Stick Tulips, also ordered from Breck’s, finally opened up. The blooms had been ready to do so since Easter. As shown here, they seemed to enjoy the sun as much as we did. These guys are very sensitive to the weather. Today was very chilly and rainy, so the buds were sealed up tight. This fence bed receives more sun than the neighboring gate bed where I planted the other half of the ice stick tulip bulbs. Again, the bulbs in the gate bed, receiving a half of day’s sunlight are several days behind the fence bed tulips.



This next flower was an absolute surprise when it started emerging. Two purple hyacinth are living in the southwest corner bed.


Finally, the Scilla survived! These bulbs, picked up from a local nursery, are part of my experiment in naturalizing an area with flowers. I planted the bulbs in the fall as directed on the package. However, instead of placing them in a bed, I cut circles into the turf and planted the bulbs directly into the back lawn near the alley. I can’s wait to see what these will look like in a few years.