Diary April 29, 2012 - Lots of work to do!

Well, here it is! Beautiful SPRING! The time of year gardeners wait for. We love our gorgeous trees, shrubs and flowers as the buds start to appear and then to unfurl. And if the weather cooperates, we can work outside in shorts and a t-shirt!
This weekend we had the 2 extremes - Saturday I worked outside for about 3 hours and froze to death! Nothing short of sticking my feet in hot water afterwards could warm me up. We apparently set a record low for Saturday overnight. Brrrr……
Today I was out for 4 hours in shorts and a shirt! It was at least 10-15 degrees warmer. And really sunny. That's the craziness of April weather.
So after 2 days of pretty intensive work Bed #1 has been weeded, pruned, transplanted, fertilized and edged! Only 7 more beds to go!! :(

Ahhh! Nice and neat. I'll wait till I have planted in my annuals to put on the mulch.

Here's what else is blooming (or almost ready to bloom) right now:

Bleeding Heart

Primula

Ajuga reptans 'Black Scallop'

Here's what's going to bloom soon:

Solomon's Seal

Climbing Hydrangea

Oakleaf hydrangea

Crabapple 'Profusion'

The spruce tree doesn't bloom of course but I adore the fresh bright green of its new growth in spring!!

OK - back to work :)

April 20, 2012 - Small Beauties and more!

Every day, there's something new to see. I had cut back all my Barrenwort and was worried that I didn't see anything coming up. But yesterday, both colours had returned!! How tiny and beautiful!

First the little yellow one - Epimedium x versicolor 'Sulphureum'

The dark pink one appeared as well - Epimedium rubrum

Several new daffodils opened up:

The spectacularly exotic 'Tahiti'

And cute little 'Suzy' with its orange centre

Pushkinia

Bright yellow Euphorbia (or Spurge)

And here come the Hostas!!

Diary April 17 - New Blooms!!

Wouldn't you know it? Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day was Sunday and here it is 2 days later - 

and I have more things blooming!!!!!

 So I thought I would show you some of today's beauties anyway:

Sweet smelling Thalia daffodil - 2 blooms on 1 stalk

White trillium

Red Trillium (mine is almost a burgundy colour)

Labrador violets with their little purple leaves

Pink Triumph Tulip (although I planted Flaming Parrot and Blushing Girl!!)
Must have been packaged wrong - it's lovely anyway.

The Viburnum x burkwoodii opened and it's oh! so fragrant!!

The squirrels haven't touched the rest of the Apeldoorn tulips so I thought I'd shoot a photo of them with the stone fish
(I put my 3 statues out the other day - this fish, my little girl reading a book and Brer Rabbit)

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - April 15, 2012

Well, here we are again - the 15th of every month is Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!! A great
day to share what's blooming in my garden with fellow bloggers (and other interested folks!).
This meme is created by Carol at May's Garden Dreams http://www.maydreamsgardens.com/
I am happy to report that there's MUCH more to see than last month but that's because
the crazy heat wave we had in March pushed everything ahead at least a month.
Oh well - let's just enjoy.
Here's what's blooming in my garden today:

Grape muscari

'Jetfire' daffodils

(on its last legs but still blooming) Forsythia

Scilla

Beautiful red Apeldoorn Darwin tulip…but looked what happened next...

Rotten little scoundrel squirrel bit the head off !!!

Blue hyacinths

Fuschia hyacinths

Chionodoxa (Glory of the Snow)

Ice Follies cupped Narcissus

King Alfred Type Trumpet daffodil

Wonderful tiny mini Narcissus - Hawera

And now - a sneak preview of what will be in bloom NEXT MONTH!

Extremely fragrant Viburnum x burkwoodii

Bleeding hearts

And hopefully……..Peonies!!