Hello Spring!

At the townhouse I am watching for the garden to start popping. So far, a bit of sedum, and these two clumps of daylilies

Happy Spring 2024!

Happy Spring 2024! Gardening season has begun in earnest here. A few weeks ago my forced daffodils started blooming. They are now wrapping up, and tonight will be their first night outdoors. Their greens need to fade back before I can cut them back and plant them in the ground. Location TBD.
Here are the last of the blooms.

The sedum I left out for the birds and bunnies are all cut back, the daylilies, sedum, tulip, and crocus are all coming up, and the Bluebells clematis has buds. Coffee grounds (to prevent slugs) are already on half of the garden areas. It might not be official spring, but spring has sprung in Minnesota. No question about it. And the mosquitoes got the memo too. 10 minutes of sitting out by the little gas fire pit, and the first one made an appearance. Where is that bin of repellents? Better take stock now.

Early morning

May is here, and with it, hopefully, more patio time at the townhouse, and camping time up north.

The snow up north has returned to it’s liquid form, allowing tulips to start showing up.

Now, admittedly, those, like the tulips I recently planted at the historic cemetery, were forced bulbs from years past, and have never bloomed up north, that I know of. But just having the greens is an improvement from waist-high snow. It was a very long winter.

The past couple mornings, at the townhouse, I had an “opportunity” to go outside at 4am, courtesy of one terhuahua named Sandy. The moon was full and … the birds were singing. At 4:09 am.

12 to go

I have been busy putting coffee grounds around all the daylilies and hostas that are coming up. Wow! Reality check that the workout we now do at the Y really is pretty much aerobic. Gardening muscles are a very different workout.

There are 12 plants to go, that haven’t popped up yet, that still need coffee grounds. They are mostly hostas and the Asian lily clumps. I am not optimistic about the Asian lilies by the linden, along the left side of the little path, as they have been fading the past two years. I will miss them if they fail. They are the ones on my blog front picture. But if they fail, why a nice replacement in the form of a pollinator created daylily seedling could fill that space, in a pinch, if needed 😊

Much better!

Last summer we moved some mature red daylilies from the back to the front entry. I was hoping they would transition well. Indeed, they are up! With the Amur Maple no longer shading that area, they should get a good amount of sun.

Going backwards?

Are we heading backwards? Well, only for a couple days. I was not at all interested in taking full snow covered grass and tree pictures from Sunday’s storm. Rather, celebrating how today’s return to a more normal April day vanquished the white stuff once again.

Tulip planting time

It is tulip planting time. “What?”, you say. “Perhaps fall would be better?” you say. Yes, but these are bulbs from a watch’em grow vase our grandson, by way of Mom and Dad, gave me. They started to bloom before we went on our first ever planned “down south” vacation, and waited to wrap up blooming until a few days after we got back. Amazing! Maybe it was because we needed some cheering up during our covid bout.

Where should they be planted? Maybe up north. Maybe in the front of the townhouse. Or maybe at a new volunteer location, if approved of course. I will keep you posted 😁

Survival Rates

Last Saturday was a springboard to glorious garden time days. I could not resist being out in the front gardens. Sunday morning the gardens out back also got some love.

The snow melted very fast and is now gone – even the giant snow plow pile. A very odd feeling after such a LONG SNOWY winter, but it is time! We may have another snow or two, but just like early fall, they melt pretty fast.

The perennial survival rates are good so far.

All of the sedum made it through the winter, and have new leaf buds forming. The non-productive tulips out front are also up, as well as one daylily.

Out back, the Purple D’Oro and Just Plum Happy daylilies are poking up, the two areas with productive tulips, crocus, and on one side hyacinth are up, and … the Blue Mouse Ears are starting to poke up!

Under the Linden, the Marque Moon daylilies are coming up.

No asian lilies, and no big hostas yet, but that is super normal.

With the Amur Maple situation out front, whether or not they replace the tree, our shade will be compromised, so I am very glad I did not put any Blue Mouse Ears divisions in front where there used to be shade.

Look super closely. A few days ago these were the Purple D’Oro daylilies. Just a tiny sprig of green.