Woodland Wildflowers

Here are some lovely wildflowers we saw just starting to bloom on our Mother's Day walk through the woods.  So pretty!

Springtime planting

Here are some photos of our progress yesterday.  We made a new planting bed around the deck (half of it is done) so we filled it with some new hydrangeas and the little roses from the front yard.  We also laid some sod.

The lilacs are greening up nicely, hoping they will be blooming by Memorial day.  The little Hummingbirds are back too.  I don't know if they have found the feeder yet though.

I forgot!

I forgot to mention I saw our first butterfly over the weekend!  It was darkly colored, I did not recognize it in my quick glimpse, but I do hope it sticks around.  Signs of spring are so comforting

First planting of the season!

Finally!  We spent some long but enjoyable hours outside this weekend.  We spent a few hours raking up the sticks and dried grass and seeds and leaves from the backyard.  Hopefully with the warmer temps the grass will start to grow and the lawn won't look so sparse.  The front yard still needs some hard raking, which will hopefully get done after work over the next week.

We also had a nice bonfire this afternoon, burning up a lot of the brush that accumulated over the winter.  We still have enough for one good bonfire yet, perhaps next weekend.

In the garden, I got one of the planter boxes loaded up with some compost and a new layer of dirt from last year' pots (next year maybe we can do that in the fall...).  In it, I planted a row each of our spring crops:  sugar snap and snow peas, red and green romaine, spinach, arugula, radishes, carrots, cilantro and parsley.

We also made our first trip to Gertens this year.  We got some nice hanging baskets (I'll post pics later) as well as potatoes and onion sets for planting.  Hopefully we will get those in the garden this week.

I put my hoe from Johnny's today!  Used it for the first time-it works splendidly!  

Finally, we got the bird feeder stand put up in its new location.  I'm not convinced of it yet-it's a little low to be seen from the deck, but we will try it for a bit.  The feeders are full, except for the hummingbird feeder, I need to make some syrup yet.  We'll see how long it takes for the birds to find them again!

The next week looks to be filled with 60 degree temps and scattered showers.  Hopefully everything will respond and green things up!

...bring Creeping Charlie

It's the only thing that seems to be growing!  We have gotten over 4 inches of rain in the last week, but it's been so cold and dreary that the only think that seems to be growing is the pile of branches for the fire pit from all the wind we have been having.  Today, however, I got home from work and the weather was a stable, not too breezy 55 degrees.  The sun even tried to peak out for a few minutes!  So I spent an hour or so in the butterfly garden trying to carefully weed out the Charlie without disturbing the perennials...never an easy task.  But even if I accidentally sacrificed a columbine flower or two, it's worth it to get ahead of the creeper.  And since I don't trust it in the compost bin...it's more fuel for the fire pit!

Hopefully the balmy weather will continue this weekend and we can get a nice bunch of spring cleanup finally done.

April Showers

As we enjoy a light rain and our first echoes of thunder of the season, it's probably a good time for an update.  Both work and weather have kept me out of the garden so far.  We have had a few nice days, but those hours have been spent doing spring cleanup, not planting.  About a week ago we noticed the first few bulbs popping up.  They are about 4 inches tall now.  I think the squirrels have done a number on them so we will pay attention to what is left and plant more this fall.

There is also either garlic or onions coming up in the raised beds.  Must have gotten missed last fall...oops!

What we have done is pick up some of the sticks that little the yard after the winter and put down some grass seed and fertilizer.  Our lawn has been in rough shape, so hopefully this will help it get back on track. 

We also spent a solid 3 hours putting together patio furniture yesterday...a good job done.  Now if it would only stop raining for a day so we could enjoy it!

Hopefully, as the saying goes, this next full week of rain showers will bring us some flowers.  The lilacs are starting to bud out (leaves that is).  Maybe we will have some greenery to look at soon.

Fun in the sun!

Before.

During. 

After!

And now we are in a snow storm again...