How Does Your Garden Grow?

Seeing splashes of color amidst all the brown of last season's dropped leaves is probably a pretty good metaphor for hope. I know that to keep a nice and neat garden, I should rake away all of last year's leaves. But my soil is in such need of organic material that I leave them. And I'm a bit on the lazy side. And I like how my ground looks more like the ground of a forest floor.

The squill is on its way to taking over my strawberry patch. But it's a very good companion. Its leaves are on their way out before the strawberries get very big.

The crocus were planted two years ago and are doing fine. I'm looking forward to them naturalizing the area. I'm not sure how quickly they will do this or if I'll need to divide them to help them along. The squill certainly needed no help.

A few years ago I purchased a potted weeping pussy willow for the house. I decided to give it a chance outside and it has done just fine, except for being chewed up by bunnies or ground hogs. This hear I got some hardware cloth around it and it seemed to be doing fine. I didn't see any pussy toes, however, until I pulled up on the stems. The blooms were all hiding under the fallen leaves. So maybe I should rake a bit next year.

I didn't expect to see the pulmonaria blooming already. But it was new for me last year. I'm certainly not going to complain.

Now where's my hepatica? At my former house, it was always the first to bloom--sometimes when there was still snow on the ground. Perhaps I just can't amend my heavy clay soil enough to make it happy.

The checkered lilies are about ready. And just for Karen, I'm posting a photo of my garden kitty.