The Crocus continue to please me popping up in waves of colour through out different beds.
I even found a couple tucked in under big leaves of Bergenia cordifolia and I moved a "Toad house" to get a better look only to find three more happily growing inside the Toad house..
This wine coloured Hellebore brightens up an area under a tree. I pulled some of the older leaves
that got hit by an earlier hard freeze. the blooms are numerous.
White Hellebore on the dark mulch really pop out.
This is Heuchera Caramel planted around the base of a big tree to lighten and contrast with the dark green of the Hellabore and the leaves of the Ligularia when it grows.
Although the Heuchera Caramel isn't flowering it really isn't planted for its flowers much as a lot
of the newer species of Heuchera which are loved for their vibrant foliage colours adding interest
for at least three seasons..
These are existing Pansy's.. I have yet to get out and plant the new flats in..
I did uncover some little Viola's and thought I took a picture of them... I will for next week!
I hope to be able to get out and transplant the Pansy's this weekend. Then the garden will
have a lot more colour to it.
Daffodils continue to grow daily by leaps and bounds and with the current life giving rains we have
been getting positively charged from the thunder and lightening then with luck they will start to open in the next week as the weather is once again suppose to get up well over 50.
I found my first daffodil opening. Happiness floods my whole being as I know it won't be long before the
frogs will return to Frog Hollow and the Mermaid will once again come out to play..
These are real wicker chairs that also came with a table. A client I sold a house to didn't want them and so sold them to me for $50.00. I've painted the one on the left with a coat of paint. I think they are cleaning
up very nicely. The table has a removable tray. I can't wait to share with you what I have planned for it!.
Its a wet windy Wednesday here. But this time of year the rain is far more welcomed then snow!
I swear I can see the grass greening up and the perennials pushing and unfurling up through the mulch. Stretching and yawning as they push their first leaves up. I love this time of year walking around and seeing what has survived. I did add a lot of plant material and then did some late year dividing and transplanting. Moving plants around to create what I hope will be far more pleasing waves of colour, contrast, form, and repetition with a lot of my own personal design style thrown in. It doesn't mean it will be any more "right" then the previous owner before me.. It will be just a lot more "ME"...
What projects are you tackling lately?. Are you changing up your beds?. Adding a new colour theme?
Perhaps like me you are looking at your long list of "I want too" and wondering which one to start with.
I'm taking the approach of "Eat the Elephant one bite at a time"....
What gets done will get done... It is after all, all for my enjoyment so I'm just relaxing and not stressing and
enjoying every hour I get to play and learn in my own garden. If it doesn't turn out the way I've pictured it then I will just tweak it till it all fits together.
Thanks for stopping by and walking my garden. Let me know you've been. I welcome all comments, suggestions and even corrections!
Im linking up with A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday...
enjoy..
Im also linking up with Tootsie Time for Fertilizer Friday...
Hi Kate... I like your new format and your pics look great. In response to your question about magnolias on my post, I have many that I really like. Perhaps my favorite yellow is "Elizabeth" which has been around since the 50's and is out of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden... another yellow from there which I will be getting this year is 'Lois'... reputed to be outstanding. A favorite peachy pink is "Daybreak' which blooms with 'Elizabeth' and is very fragrant. Check out Klehms Song Sparrow Nursery on the internet... they have some of the newest and hardiest magnolias with bloom periods in the range of a month... many are from the hybridzation program of my friend Dennis Ledvina and I am trying eleven new ones this year. Be sure to check out my "pages" in the upper right hand corner of my blog... there are two that reference magnolias.
ReplyDeleteCrescendo is an outstanding choice and it is available at Song Sparrow... the original tree is in a friend's yard and is spectacular in bloom!
Regarding needle problems on spruce... it seems to be inevitable after 20-30 years especially and I have been hit big time over the past two years. I am going to be 64 years old in July and it's too late to start a new wind break for example... my solution is to prune up the trees and where plausible, to add shade gardens. The disfigurement of the trees greatly bothers me, so I try to ignore it since there really are no solutions that are realistic. It has even started to take hold in my large number of Montgomery spruces which saddens me greatly... I will probably do some pruning up and add large hostas to hide the problem in the lower branches.
I could easily remove 100 or more spruces at this point but I would never regain the look I want in my lifetime... the more realistic approach is selective removal as I come up with new ideas for change in the landscape.
I did limb up one main area of my windbreak last season and added rustic fences at the outside edge... it has created an interesting space and actually one tends not to look overhead at the branches and their loss of needles. So that's my take on it for now... we'll see how I feel about it in the future...
Take care, Larry