How Does Your Garden Grow?

There is a squirrel nest in my Ash tree. That stupid squirrel and his/her stupid friends dig holes all over my garden beds and uproot new plants. They taste-test bulbs and tomatoes, but never finish anything. And worst of all, like the rabbits, they destroy the pretty flowers!

This was my first bearded iris... I bought a "mystery box" of irises, daffodils and tulips on eBay two Falls ago. My first iris finally bloomed on Sunday. I went out yesterday to take a picture, but this is what I found.

There would have been four flowers! Dang squirrel took a bite out of one of the buds and just left the remnants on the stairs. Bastard.

Early May:




This is the backyard before cleaning up for the spring. Hard to tell anything is growing here.



After cleaning and now you can see the hostas coming up and other various plants.




This is the front yard. I won't be doing much planting till after I get the house painted around the first of June. Then I plan on putting up the window boxes and putting in some plants near the sidewalk. It is a very shady front yard, plus the pine tree makes the soil very acidic so choices are more limited.

Late May:

This has been a banner year for the spirea bush. My crabapples, on the other hand, did not really bloom much at all. My neighbor says crabapples bloom well every other year, and last year was certainly a good one. Next year will be the test, I guess.

This was taken just a few days ago. You can see considerable progress from the first photos.

The colorful tulips are all but gone. Only the free-with-my-late-Fall-order Queen of the Night tulips are left blooming. Not as tall as Karen's from last year, but that could be because mine were planted in a shady spot by the garage.


I planted another freebie in that bed-- a Northern Lights Azalea. At last year's neighborhood garden tour, some folks were giving away three of these shrubs as they needed more sun. I took one and for some reason I thought the new bed by the garage would be a perfect sunny spot for it. It actually only gets about two-and-a-half hours of sun a day. Before this week, I figured the poor thing was dead, but its got a few nice yellow and white blooms on it now!


There are a few other flowers out now. Surprisingly few of the daffodils I planted have bloomed. There's lots of green, just few flowers.
A Columbine and yet another freebie, a giant Allium are also in flower now.Like many gardeners, I enjoy purple plants. Several of mine are coming along. Penstemon 'Husker's Red' (I think) and 'Purple Palace' Heuchera.

I am looking forward to two new Geraniums planted last Fall. My 'Purple Emperor' Sedums should be a good size this, their third, year.I am also really looking forward to my three Clematis vines. The Huldine is on its forth year and the Clematis 'General Sikorski' is finally coming on in its second year. I just planted a third clematis, a 'Ville de Lyon' and have ordered a 'Niobe' that should arrive soon.