A Spring Tour

May 06, 2018

A Spring Tour

The garden has finally started to emerge and bloom after a long, cool spring.

The most amazing blooms this early are these stunning double tulips.

These in particular were provided by Longfield Gardens last fall to celebrate the NGB's Year of the Tulip!

In the rest of the garden, new growth is showing up from every corner. Clematis have started reaching up repurposed ladders:

The lone ajuga (out of five!) that survived is thriving, spreading and blooming:

Wouldn't that look nice all over the stone walls?

Peonies are starting to bud...

In the Allium Bed, sedums are doing their job of bulking up the border's edge and supporting floppier plants.

Also, note the very eager first alliums are just starting to bud as well!

Doing her job again, sedum is battling it out with some soapwort in the Grasses Bed. [below]

Both plants are workhorses in the garden. Common, yet agile, they are useful to "cover ground", fill in bare spots and add structure to the more whimsical plants in the garden. I never thought I would love sedum, but she has earned a spot in my heart through many years of easy growing, easy propagation and a lack of thuggish behavior.

These two are holding court in The Grasses Bed along with some freshly emerging Amsonia Hubrictii:

This was my first winter caring for Amsonia and I though I had kilt it all. No sign of life all early spring and so I eventually got close and started digging around even though I probably shouldn't have. Every single last Amsonia had tiny little stalks emerging underground (like peonies almost) and now they are happily taking off.

More tulips sprinkled in here from a winter clearance, but they aren't as impressive as the doubles:

Also not as impressive as the Longfield Gardens doubles, these tulips are cheerful nonetheless:

'Mirandas'

However. All of these red double tulips were in 5 cent bags late in January at Walmart this year. 5 CENTS.

Along with many bags of daffodils and hyacinth, I swooped them ALL up and paid about 75 cents for many, many flowers.

The experiment of throwing bulbs into the ground LONG after I was supposed to worked out well!

This butter yellow primrose is perfection in the light of early spring.

I want many many more of them as I try to pretend I am living in Scotland:

Down to the Potager, the 'Tahiti' daffodils are adding a bit o' cheer:

There aren't a ton of edibles yet, but we have baby lettuce in a bucket:

A few token peas reaching hopefully for some homemade "trellising":

Onions are coming up by the dozen:

As are potatoes! These are planted in a new bed composed of shredded leaves and grass clippings last fall and held together by haybales. Another experiment that I hope works out the way I envision! So far, so good on potatoes and onions at least!