Beautiful spring. The crocuses blooming, the oak leaves saying goodbye, and a hint, just a hint, of bunny activity. Now I need to research – don’t rabbits like crocuses? I thought they did. Or is that the coffee grounds at work? Should I move that oak leaf covering the crocus or will that be the temptation tipping point for the bunny – who we often see, and its buddies. What is happening here? Ok with bunnies eating the garden??? It’s ok – those tulips don’t bloom – haha!
Well, for sure no more coffee grounds – that is in moderation only. Maybe leave it as it occured, and let the wind make the decision.
19 years ago when the trees were planted here we watched as a tiny unknown tree was planted off to a corner of the house. We watered it consistently that first year and it survived the warm weather planting. It grew the next year and the next year. We identified it as a linden. We enjoyed it’s growing canopy. And we paid to have landscaping put around it because the lawn maintenance provider was cutting into the base each week with their trimmers.
That linden is so healthy. It provides wonderful shade. One day last summer our son and daughter-in-law stopped by unexpectedly with our baby grandson. I was covered in sweat from gardening. They didn’t care. We sat down under the linden’s shade and they asked if I wanted to hold him. Of course I did! Later my daughter in law sent me a picture – Gramma in her element, holding her first Grandbaby, all sweaty from gardening, sitting under the linden. A glorious, unexpected blessing!
Once again, that linden has outgrown it’s digs. It needs the landscape fabric and rock pulled back again, as I do every year. It’s base looks strong – a lot like the thousands of trees up north that have seen decades of wind and ice and snow piled high, and also drought. It deserves to have the continual protection from the landscape trimmers, but this year I am tempted to pull a lot of the rock, put that rock in sparcely rocked places throughout the garden, and put mulch in that area by the linden.
Wait! Didn’t I say we weren’t doing any improvements this year? Sit tight oh garden nurturer. I will try. Honestly I will.
Most of our “tulips” here are actually just tulip greens. For some reason, tulips around here don’t have a lot of staying power for blooms. Yet every year, consistently, the tulip bulbs I have planted over the years are one of, if not the first, greens to emerge from the thawing ground.
There is, however, one stand of tulips that does bloom every year, and has for over 15 years. They are starting to come up again now, and I am hoping they will have their usual cheery purple blooms again this year. Time, as always, will tell.
Every year the robins arrive as the first big wave of migrating birds. They are here for a few weeks, and then the dark-eyed juncos start to leave. The robins have been here for, oh I don’t know, four weeks? We noticed last week the dark-eyed juncos have begun to leave. We read about their migration a few years ago. They leave at night. One day there will be the normal abundance, and the next day we have to really search.
Thanks wonderful dark-eyed juncos, for another wonderful winter of your on-the-ground hopping around antics. Safe travels!
We have a Bluebells clematis out front. It never has bloomed very well, which has been a surprise, as I bought it from an online seller that has always sent me very well producing bulbs, tubers, and plants. It is supposed to bloom on both old and new growth. Maybe I have been limiting it. The vine and leaf growth is very proliferous so every fall it has gotten a pretty good trim. Last fall I was tempted to remove it, but instead we left half of the 2021 growth as a test. I am hoping it blooms more this year. It is a nice cover up for the shepherd’s hook where we hang one of the two hummingbird feeders.
A few days ago it had just leaf buds. Now it has “sprung”. Besides the very sparce blooms, it is a healthy plant and holds up well in the wind, so I am hoping this is the year we see it’s true bloom potential.
I enjoy all of our daylilies tremendously. I do have a favorite as well. It is an unlikely choice for me based on performance. It has way less blooms than many of our other daylilies. It is orange – which is not my favorite color, even for daylilies. But nevertheless, it remains my favorite. It is our South Seas daylily. We have only one. And it just started showing up this week.
It doesn’t look like much right now, but it is back, and that is the start.
It is a late spring this year. But sure as can be, the gardens are starting to emerge. Even without doing any digging I know the ground is thawing because when I come in from doing the early garden prep, my boots have mud on the soles. Ahhh! Dirt! And out of the thawing ground the tulip leaves are up quite a bit in the past few days. Those may or may not bud and bloom. Tulips do not have much year over year blooming power around here. But it is good to see green again!
Could it be? Yes! The first flower of the year! Of course it is a hardy crocus! Yeah for crocuses!!! Or croci. Whichever you prefer, the first flower of the year deserves celebration! Look close 🙂
Susan's Daily Garden 