Birds, Bees, Butterflies And Gardens

Yesterday Del and I took one more step in the many step process of grading our front yard, and adding a circle driveway to the side of the house.

The step we took yesterday was adding the top soil into the center of the driveway that will be next year’s garden.

I forgot to take pictures .. so here’s the visual. We had 20 TONS of dirt dumped into the middle of the open space. What does that look like? Well, imagine 5 big piles of dirt about 5 feet high.

We decided it all had to be done yesterday, in the middle of our heat wave (105) because today it was supposed to rain. (It did) Having 20 yards of dirt melt into mud didn’t sound promising so at 5:00am we were out shoveling.

We got done in the morning around 11:00 and waited to 5:00pm to seed and straw the area. Next year – this will be mostly a big vegetable garden, or at least that’s the plan. At the moment it is seeded with winter rye which we will till back in next spring, and the work will have been well worth it.

You can see it in the background through the picture of the flower pots.

In the mean time, the current garden continues to offer stunning beauty. The Echinacea Flame Thrower (from Wayside Gardens) that Lara gave us and the lily mixture that Dianne and Cougar gave us (from White Flower Farms) are beautiful together. Imagine what they will look like next year!

Here’s a mix of pictures from our wet morning around the garden ..

(And here’s the thought that came to me as I stared into these flowers: “Look into this flower, and tell me there is not a God, the infinite intelligent, loving, existence of everything. If God can design and provide for the life of this flower, It is certainly designing and providing this kind of a beauty for me and you.”)

[View with PicLens]

Here’s some of what is blooming today in my garden .. including Del, who was pretending to be a flower .. looks like one to me!

(Click on the picture to get a larger view of each picture, or the link to see a bigger slide show.)

[View with PicLens]

Summer, it’s beginning. The warm days with all it’s sights and sounds, the slow motion feel of each day. It’s hard to keep working behind the computer when I hear a hummer on the feeder, or the just the idea of reading on the deck as the wind gently blows.

This Peonie was transplanted from the back yard to the front to increase our view. I think it likes it!

When Del and I first moved into this house a few years ago there were a few plants here, but not many. Each summer we dig another bed, or add to an existing one. Not thinking anyone noticed but us, it felt good to hear the mail woman tell us we had a beautiful garden!

Blooming Chives always remind me of my dad, not matter how many times I see it. Planted in full sun, these come back every year.

At first Del though she was joking because we just had tons ( literally ) of fill dirt dropped into our front yard in preparation for leveling the ground so that we don’t acquire a lake in each big rain, or fall into potholes when mowing the ever diminishing yard (it’s a good thing because it is turning into a garden) but no, she really meant the part of the garden that actually looks like a garden…

This Honeysuckle is attracting hummingbirds, as intented. Planted beside a deck with a feeder hanging nearby, I can hear the Hummers as I work in my office.

There is always work to be done in a garden, but as always, the results are worth it. I am sharing just a few of the plants that have opened their buds this week.

I bought two knock out roses last year from our town. They use it for a fund raiser, and it doesn't hurt that it makes the town more beautiful too!

Speaking of roses, this is a rose my daughter Lara got us last year. She is the queen of roses..

Zephirine Drouhin, so beautiful!

When I planted the Bleeding Heart in beside the Zephirine Drouhin, I didn't know they would be the same color! Sometimes, ok, often, it is intuition that guides the hand ..

Finally an update on the squirrel that adopted us! He is now living in a BIG cage that Del built him. He was outgrowing the little “box” we kept him in. We’ll keep him until he is ready to run free..

You can almost hear him asking .. "can I go out and play"?

One of the gray squirrels that lives in our tiny woods behind our house.

Always alert .. and always "figuring out a way"!

Plus, I saw my first red squirrel. I thought it was a chipmunk at first ..

Check out that eye "make-up"!

After applying 8 cubic yards of mulch (4 more to go) Del and I took a walk around the garden to see what was blooming.

Important to do, don’t you think, to remember what all that “work” is about. Though I would share some of those blooms with you!

Bleeding Heart

Columbine

Foxglove

This Iris was here when we move in.. was under where a deck is now.

Another Iris that I found and moved from under another deck ..

Petunia thriving in a pot

Wisteria

Masses of peonies are blooming too… watch for their pictures ..

You would think, given how long it is since I have posted, that I have not been gardening at all. Not true! Although I was temporarily diverted because we were preparing and guiding a retreat, which in a way is still gardening, on the very first sunny day back I was out gardening.

I had masses of seedlings to plant that I had started in my little greenhouse purchased from Lowes back in March.

I had wonderful plants to find homes for given to me by may family for birthday and mother’s day. Two full days from early morning to nighttime found my husband and me in the garden.

Some of the seedlings I planted were zinnas, sunflower seeds, and violas. The bigger plants were corylus avellana contorta, clematis, and lilium.

While I was planting Del was installing landscape timbers to border our parking “lot” (we have lots of family that comes to visit.. lucky us!) and I was replacing little patches of lawn with plants. I confess though, that I was unable to dig the holes that these plants needed, and Del dug them for me in just a few minutes time.

Someday, after much care and attention perhaps all of our garden will have soil that is easily dug into. For now I am grateful for his prowess with a shovel.

This Broom just keeps on blooming!

Of course no garden update is complete without a few pictures of what is blooming! The first is the wisteria that Lara gave us this spring. It is in a pot for awaiting an arbor of some sort to climb on. Years and years ago I owned a home for a brief time. I planted wisteria but never got to see it bloom. I know this is a reminder to all of us, that good things are never lost to us.

The moss and the columbine are from Michael and Mesa last year. I came home from a trip and found them sitting there waiting for me. A lovely welcome home.

There are teeny tiny flowers in this moss ..

I love that many of my plants are gifts. As I check on them and admire their growth they always remind me of the person who gave it to us. A gift that truly keeps on giving!

Just in case these aren’t enough pictures for you to see, there is a slide show of more flowers in my other blog.

Columbine with Iris and Peonies getting ready to bloom in the background

For over a week we had summer weather here in Northeast Ohio. In fact the last time it was this warm here during early April was in 1929.

I lucked out this year when I told my husband Del it would be an early spring. Plus we had a little bet going. In February I told him there would only be 5 more snowstorms that would accumulate over 2 inches. When the big one hit at the end of February it was also the 5th one. “That’s it,” I said, “The last big snow of the season.”

Who knew that would be true?

The thing about Spring, we wait and wait for it, and then it comes so fast that if you blink you will miss it. That is especially true this year. Given the warm weather we are almost 3 weeks ahead of schedule.

Trees, flowers .. everything is either blooming or getting ready to bloom. That means we must be very diligent to not miss a single thing. If you are a gardener you already know this. You have to go out and stand in front of a lilac bush and brush the buds with your fingertips to get the full extent of the power of a bloom when it is on it’s way.

The hostas are bursting through the earth and my hyacinths grow inches one day. Have you noticed that nothing smells like spring as much as a hyacinth?

Although I have always loved gardening, there was a patch of many years where I just enjoyed other gardens as I had neither the space or the inclination to plant my own. Other tasks were more important at the time.

However, once we moved into our home (my first in 30 years) just two years ago the property called for plants and more plants. The hands-on gardener in me returned. It’s the properties fault after all because no matter how many I put into the space, there is room for many, many more.

When the warm weather started I was truly hit with spring fever and out I went to plant. My daughter Lara sent us three plants and when they arrived they were the first to find a new home. She sent, and I planted, Echinacea Flame Thrower, Wisteria Frutescens Amethyst Falls, and Salix Alba Britzensis (a willow).

Plus more plants like Liatris Spicata and Arbovitea were added. I stopped counting half way through the week.

To top it off, I started some seeds of many plants and put them in the rolling “greenhouse” I purchased from Lowes.

No matter that right now big snow flakes are falling. Besides, it’s temporary, they melt as soon as the touch the ground. It’s April after all.

What matters is the joy of being part of a cycle of seed to bloom. It doesn’t matter if you are the gardener who plants, or the gardener who enjoys gardens vicariously.

It is the appreciation of the garden that counts. And for any of you who are not planting right now because there are other things to attend to, don’t worry, I am planting for you just as the millions of gardeners are planting for me, and for everyone who enjoys a garden.

To find many of these plants I mentioned visit White Flower Farms or any of the other garden links you can find on the right of this page, or on the bottom.

Let me know how your planting is going for you!

My mom, sister, brother, husband and I traveled to New Orleans on our way to see our mother’s home town in Louisiana.

These are pictures of two gardens we walked through on March 19, 2010.

It’s hard to tell that they are recovering from Hurricane Katrina because everything was so beautiful. I took pictures of some flowers because I have no idea what they are so I could look for their names. By any other name .. they are lovely.

Click on any picture to start a slide show ..