This weekend it was 90 degrees, 2o above normal. A few weeks ago in April it was 20 degrees below normal. Plants were enticed to leap ahead in March, then flash frozen in April – now they are wilting under a hot sun. The heat brought on a need for mulching. First I used the …
I was out of town on the 15th on a business trip. (Work was absolutely brutal, but that’s another subject.) Therefore, I am granting myself a four day extension on the bloom day due date. Here goes, in no particular order: Peony ‘America’ Brunnera macrophyla Heuchera Lonicera sempervivens Lonicera ‘John Clayton’ Polemonium carneum Polemonium reptans …
The Baltimore orioles – one of my favorite birds – have arrived! Also, for the first time, we have attracted indigo buntings to our yard. To entice them, I’ve been spreading millet on the ground for about two weeks. The buntings look like someone took a goldfinch and painted it an intense, electric blue. Unfortunately, Judy couldn’t …
To celebrate her birthday and our anniversary, Judy and I went to Paris for the second week in April. It was great! Neither of us had been there before. The food,the architecture, the street life, the parks, the museums … just a wonderful experience. I’m planning three posts about the gardens. Judy took over 1,500 pictures, …
It was cool and cloudy Saturday, cool and mostly sunny today. This should be remembered as “The Spring of Hurry Up and Wait,” for its excessive early warmth followed by downright chilly weather. Dug out six Early Sunflower (Heliopsis) from my front bed along the sidewalk. While these are nice plants, they’re just too big and …
Judy’s camera isn’t working, so we’ve got to take it to the shop. In the meantime, we’ll have to make due with our iPad. We both took these pictures, mine are distinguished by their fuzzy quality.
The bed along the east side of our house has always been a problem . It’s separated from the neighbor’s old brick garage by a stretch of grass about 8′ wide. These are nice neighbors, and I want my side of this side yard to look presentable but also consistent with my style of gardening. Unfortunately, …
Just got back from a week’s vacation with Judy (more on the trip once Judy has sorted the 1,500+ photos she took – thank God she has a digital camera). Pulled up to the house and first thing I noticed was the celandine poppies (Stylophorum diphyllum) blooming their hearts out. This is another midwest native wildflower …
The Merrybells (Uvularia grandiflora) are blooming. This is one of my favorite spring flowers (native to the midwest) but one I don’t see very often. Like everything else this spring, it’s blooming early. So early that it seems to have rushed into bloom before reaching it’s normal height of about 18″. What makes this a great …
Well, today and yesterday were not as eerily beautiful as some of the days we’ve had recently. They were on the chilly side and mostly overcast. However, they were good enough to get outside and spend many enjoyable hours doing spring chores. As noted in my previous post, the first thing I did on Friday …
gardeninacity 