A Not So Sunny Sunday

Starting off today, I offer you this little glory of the snow plant, which I spied yesterday outside the restaurant, but failed to include in last night's post.

I'm not sure we had an actual freeze last night, but it was certainly chilly...a condition which continued throughout this overcast day. I still got a reasonable amount accomplished in various garden locales, but did so with more layers than I needed earlier in the week.



Here's a long shot of the garden at the back of the house. Let's see, from left to right, there's violets, trillium, primroses, money plant, assorted daffodils, a host of hostas, and a rose bush, with assorted ferns mixed in here and there.

Oh, yes...and a chipmunk waiting behind the trillium for me to go away!


In the back garden (which you can see is starting to look a bit tidier than the winter had left it), I got a good deal more weeding done, and started spreading around some of that new topsoil.


The cherry tree's blooming pretty nicely...and I think I heard the telltale sounds of baby chickadees from inside this old birdhouse.

There was certainly plenty of bird activity out there this morning, like this chipping sparrow who was rooting around in the unraked territory beneath the apple tree.


There were the usual chickadees and cardi
nals ...and I think I heard an oriole (it's been a few months, though, since I've heard them, so I'll reserve confirmation of their return until a visual sighting is possible.). A mob of crows were trying to deter some larger bird from raiding their nests. I saw them all more in silhouette than dead clearly, but I think a hawk was the culprit they pursued.


I also spent some attention on the front garden bed, from which I attempted yet another surgical removal of the rampant wisteria vines that crisscross the bed. I have little hope I got it all...but I was able to get a heck of a lot of the stuff out, which is a step in the right direction. Once that was done, I added some of that nice fresh topsoil.


From the road as I left for work comes this view of our very full pond. Nice little spot.


And I'll bring the weekend to a close with a reminder to you all: the days of Spring go by pretty quickly and before you know it, you're trying to figure out how to disguise old daffodil foliage behind daylilies...so don't forget to stop and enjoy the flowers!!

Working In the Garden

Ah, a gorgeous day in the garden today. It was cool this morning, but we eventually had 63 as a high temperature.

A delightful day for working outside in the garden. My back's sore this evening, so I know I accomplished something.

By the end of the afternoon, I'd raked out all of the beds in the back garden, as well as some other areas I'd not yet raked in years past. Every year I expand the reach of the garden a bit...bwa ha ha!

I was feeling brave and strong, and so I decided to take on the wilds of the raspberry and blackberry canes. It was definitely a case of "This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you", as far as the relationship between me and the thorny bastards. But I think I made some progress.

I also got a yucca plant transplanted, and then, so it wouldn't be lonely, I planted some creeping phlox at its feet and a nice big columbine plant nearby. All three were the first to be planted into a bed I still have to properly dig out...but having jumped in to do this corner will now (theoretically) encourage me to get the rest of it in shape.



Here's a nice look at that new orange-cupped daffodil out there.

Towards the end of the afternoon, I discovered that the fruit trees I gave a hard pruning to are all doing very nicely and starting to bloom, too.

I'd thought this one was a peach tree. It hasn't done much in our two years here, so I'd only be guess. It sure was nice to see the blossoms today!

But the peach tree is also coming into bloom today, and the blossoms aren't the same...so now I'm assuming the one above is a cherry tree.

In any case, all the blossoms are beautiful...and the peach tree is about to be covered with them. Perhaps we'll have a nice crop of juicy peaches this July!

Two Years Later

It's sort of a big occasion around here at the Midnight Garden, as we celebrate my second "blog-o-versary". I'm opting away from environment unfriendly balloons and streamers, though, and just going on giving you plenty of the latest bloomers!

Two years of blog postings, two years of living in this particular place...two years of gardening and watching and exploring. Long enough to have gotten to know these gardens, their rhythms and attractions, and long enough to have done something to encourage them.

Of course, these yellow primroses need no encouragement, coming on with their show whether I pay attention or not...and to be honest, I'd almost forgotten to look for them, tucked against the foundation of the house. Glad I did though.

Tonight I spied about a dozen new columbine plants in various gardens, the result of my spreading around the seed of a few large and floriferous plants in the back garden.

In a vaguely related note, I've come up with a plan to bring a bunch of the foxglove (it's legion out back...) up to the side yard, along the driveway, along with a bunch of the violet from the back house garden, and then later I'll scatter some columbine seeds in that part of the yard. I have a feeling they'll all take nicely there.

With another variety having joined the club, here's a class photo of some of the daffodils in the garden under the bedroom.

Not far from the daffodils are a few Money Plants (lunarius biennus) just coming into bloom. I had been mistaking them for dames rocket, until I compared foliage in some online photos. Dames rocket (hesperis matronalis) has a narrower leaf.

This is the stuff that makes the big round flat white seed pods later in the season, thus also earning it the names Silver Dollar, Bolbonac, Moonwort, and... interestingly enough... Honesty. There's some more in the front driveway garden, as well.

Near the daffs and honesty, there's a small stand of red and white Trillium, also known as Wakerobin one of my favorite springtime plants. I hope to carefully transplant this to a part of the garden which will showcase it a little better. At the moment, its humble nodding heads are almost lost behind the others. As it is, this photo was taken with the camera sitting on the stone path beside it.

Here's the view of our meadow, recently mowed for the season's start. If the last two years are any indication (not to mention the current level of the pond) this area should be flooding in soon. I look forward to that, since it might mean the return of the green herons I spied out there our first year in residence.

You can see another fantastic forsythia on the far side of the pond, glowing bright in the gathering gloom. The showers forecast for today never materialized. But it was sort of an overcast day here anyway.

Here's some more of my favorites, the grape hyacinths. These are coming up at the feet of some curly ornamental grass in the back garden, which I've not yet cut down from last year.

For a grand finale this evening, I present to you an interior view of one of my early species tulips. Quite something, hmmm?

Thanks to all those who've been visiting the blog these past two years(even if you don't always leave a note to say you've done so)--It's a pleasure to share the garden with you!!

A visit to the back garden this morning found a little bit of sunshine, as well as a renewed blooming of the little gold crocuses. There's also some hyacinths coming along nicely.

Up by the house, a nice clump of trillium foliage has unfurled up through the soil under the bedroom window.

Wake Robin

Trillium