Blue?

It seems like 95% of the plants that I have brought home this spring are blue or bluish-lavender. It used to be such a novel color, but now it is everywhere. I think that I might be overdoing it a bit, but I can't resist them. The picture above is 'Desante Blue' Delphinium. It was one of the first choices for the fountain garden because of its upright habit. I also was fascinated by the almost metallic sheen of the petals.

Roses!

My roses started blooming last weekend but I'm just now getting some pictures posted. I am a few roses short this spring, because 'Neptune' and 'Laura Bush' didn't make it through the winter. 'Welcome Home' looks like it is getting diseased also. We'll see how the rest of them fare this year. First up, shown above is my trusty 'Elle'. She is planted outside of my front door, and her fragrance greets me every time I walk out and she is in bloom.

The second runner up for first to bloom this spring is 'Gingersnap'. This rose is a small one, with exceptionally bright yellow-orange flowers. I planted it for my Gnomeslayer when I brought her home from the hospital.

And also in bloom this week is my azalea...whose name I can't remember. It's still about the same size that it was when I planted it, though I'm hoping now that I have it in a different spot it will start to do better.

The Final Puzzle Piece

This weekend we got the final corner of the garden finished. I used some of the rocks that we had, and the old small pond liner, and made a water fountain in the corner. There is no pond anymore, just the fountain. When the last fish died, we decided to put off putting another pond in for a few years and take a break from pond maintenance. I do like having the sound of running water in the garden, and this is a pretty easy way to do it. No more cleaning out pond scum and fish poop for a few years. Of course then no water lily either, but I can always get another one later. Of course, I could still use one more bag of gravel to finish filling the tub. And then I can spend the summer looking through nurseries to finish off the plantings around the fountain.

Some Bunny is in my Garden

My husband was out mowing this afternoon and I was in the kitchen cooking. I heard him turn off the mower and he came in the back door. He told me to get Rowan and bring the camera. He had flushed out a couple of bunnies while he was mowing and needed me to come and move them. One hid in the same pocket in the fencepost that the bullfrog hid in (a very popular spot apparently). The other was crouched in the higher grass, still. So I approached quietly.

Taking pictures as I got closer because I wasn't sure how close I could get before it bolted.

Apparently pretty close, because I was able to pick it up, and the Gnomeslayer and I held it while he finished, then let it go along the back fenceline.

Spongebobs in my Garden

Last year I had a perfectly respectable metal professional garden trowel. Somewhere along the way it got lost, and I have no idea where it is. In the meantime I started making do with the Gnomeslayer's Spongebob trowel. Summer turned into fall, fall into winter, and now winter into spring and I am still using the Spongebob trowel. *hangs head* And sometimes the hand rake too. I broke the bucket last year using it lol. :) When did I get reduced to using toy garden implements?

The Zen Has Returned

Finally, after all of the hard work we can rest. I went out in the back garden today and watered some of the new plants, since there is no rain in sight. And that was all. :) The Gnomeslayer and I played around for a bit and then we went inside before it got too buggy. I do have a few small tasks that I'd like to get around to, but overall I am feeling pretty unambitious. :)

Done...Sort Of

I have to say that I am almost embarassed to post these pictures. The garden in the backyard was in a total disarray at the end of last year. I moved all of the plants from the beds on the back fenceline into the front and tore them out. The weeds had overtaken the garden, the pond was a wreck, and it was disheartening to even go in the back yard. So this spring, we knew that the one thing we had to do was to get the back into some kind of order.

All of the stones, bricks and rock were piled up on the corner of the patio, waiting to be used again. It was of course like catnip to the Gnomeslayer, who liked to climb all over them, standing on wobbly stones and stomping on the bugs that came out of them. I wanted my back porch again.

So here is the after, which still isn't totally finished, but is as close as it is getting this weekend. For the last few weekends we have been hauling out the weeds, gravel and dirt to clean the spot back out. The middle part is a rain garden now, there is no longer a pond. The fish died when we took them out to clean and move the pond, so we're taking the opportunity to get rid of the extra maintenance that a pond adds. Maybe in a couple of years when we are both finished with school, GS is bigger and not into everything, we will put in a bigger pond by the dining room window so that we can see it while we eat.

The rain garden is an idea that I have had for that area for a while now. It is a natural low spot and catches runoff from the downspout on the house and the front yards of both our house and our neighbors. We dug out around the area the pond had been in and filled it in with gravel on the bottom, and planted some deep-rooted plants that could stand both drought and rain.

The back fenceline garden has similar plants, those that are low maintenance and look pretty. Normally I would spend weeks perusing catalogs and websites, trying to pick out the perfect plants to go in there. But now, after about a month of working on this in the weekends, I was over the novelty of spring and planting. Every trip to Lowe's has resulted in a few more plants being grabbed here and there. I think we have had five or six Lowe's trips in the last two weeks. Have I said that I'm done yet?

The sort of part comes in with the waterfall fountain that we are going to do. In the left side of the picture you can see where it is going to be because there is pond liner hanging over the side of the stone wall. I figure that we can tinker around with that next weekend, because the remainder of this weekend is going to be cleaning up the last of the stones from the back patio and picking up all of the stray flower pots and mulch bags that are in the back. I think someone already has a use for the flower pots though.

An Annual?

Annuals are not something that I typically buy. After all, you only get to see them for one year and then they are gone. I mean, it's almost like throwing your money away! But while we were at Lowe's last weekend, I saw these beautiful snapdragons and knew that they had to be mine. We're in the middle of a huge overhaul of the backyard garden right now, and I am so tired. It has been heavy lifting and digging for the last few weekends, to get out the old weedy gravel and dirt, pulling up the endless horsetail runners and runners from the sod in the front yard that crept in unannounced and avoiding the fire ants and hornets that are not very happy with us. All the while keeping the Gnomeslayer from drinking pondwater, pulling up my lotus tuber (again and again), squashing earthworms, whacking me in the head with bamboo and eating dirt. I need a vacation from my pasttime!

Western Wood Lily

I came home to this beautiful surprise today. :)

Happy Easter!

An Unwanted Guest

The Gnomeslayer and I had to take care of an unwanted guest in the pond. We had a bullfrog again and I wanted to get him out before he ate anybody in there. We are finally getting the back garden spot cleaned up and redone, and we had to drain the pond anyway. This time he got taken across the field in a bucket and dumped along the back treeline. If he tries to come back at least he'll have a longer way to go. And with a creek along the back there, maybe he'll stay over there.

Rowan and I went to Across the Pond and got a couple of shubunkins to replace the fish that got eaten last year. It was a beautiful day outside, but it got hot, up to 82 degrees. Spring doesn't last too long around here. ;)

There are lots of things blooming, even this surprise tulip. I hadn't expected to see them since I planted them a couple of years ago, but here it is.