Friday, May 4, 2018

The Garden In Early May

I know many of you have been enjoying spring weather for quite some time now. 

Not up here on the mountain top, that's for sure....we had snow on Monday and have only had spring for 3 days now!

It almost seems too good to be true after all this time, but I'm delighted to finally be able to sit outside and feel the spring sunshine on my face. 

Heaven, pure heaven. 

The garden is not doing all that much yet, but at least it's no longer under snow so I'm grateful for every bit of color I see!


Last Spring I had purchased some potted bulb gardens - they were lovely and gave me the spring color I was craving!  When the blooms faded, I kept the pots outside and let the foliage die away as if they were in the ground. In the fall I threw those bulbs at the edge of the new garden path and tossed some dirt over them. They rewarded me this spring with this lovely show of color and scent!


The tulips are forming flower heads, I look forward to seeing their bloom next. 

I'll do the same this year with the potted tulips and daffodils I bought before Easter.  They will give me joy next spring, just as these have. 


There's lots of green to be seen now, and the Creeping Jenny is starting to take on that lovely chartreuse color I love so much. 


Up at the garden cottage, the pansies in the window box are quite happy!  The critters eat the flowers off many of my pansies, but for some reason have left these alone. 

I'm grateful for small blessings!


The forsythia is just starting to bloom, which is also a blessing as I was afraid it was going to go straight to green as it did the first year I was here. 

It's a terribly gloomy day today, so these yellow flowers are ever so welcome to bring us a spot of sunshine. 


The lilacs are working hard forming flower buds, to envelop us with their heady scent when they finally bloom. Lilacs are one of my favorite flowers, and I look so forward to their bloom each year!


On the garden steps, the daffodils have finally bloomed, just in time for my older daughter's birthday! Today she turns 28 - how on earth did that happen when she was just a little tyke not so long ago? Daffodils are her very favorite flower. Happy birthday sweet baby girl! It is also my older sister's birthday today, who happens to be my daughter's godmother - happy birthday to the best older sister a girl could ask for!! Love you both so much!! 

I am curious how my daughter could possibly be 28 when I'm still 29??? Hmmmmm that's weird.


It's nice to look down the garden steps now and see those tiny spots of sunshine. I'm not sure why all my daffodils don't bloom, I guess I'll have to do a little google search and see if perhaps I can feed them something to guarantee blooms next year. 


I enjoyed coffee on the deck swing on this cloudy morning. I love being able to sit out and watch the birds at the feeder once more. It seems Miss Molly found something that kept her interest up in the sky, yet she paid no attention to the woodpecker on the feeder. Funny little thing she is, my Little Miss Molly! 

My mountain view will be shrinking shortly as the trees fill in. I'll miss it, but I also love the feeling of being in the tree tops when I'm up on the deck.  


Not a spot of sunshine to be seen this morning, yet I was quite happy to just sit and enjoy the warm breezes and the birdsong all around me. 


This woodpecker has been a regular visitor all winter - isn't he lovely with his red head and black & white striped back!


Looking down from the deck I can finally see the haze beginning, a sure sign the trees will leaf out shortly. 


A few shrubs and trees in the wild garden and ravine have already started to leaf out. Soon my property will be once again hidden from the road, as I like it!


Some of the more established seedlings have been spending time outdoors now. We are due some heavy thunderstorms today so I left them tucked under the eaves for protection. I hope they will be ok in the high winds!


I only ordered one type of onion this year, unlike last year's insane onion order. I decided to try planting them in the herb boxes on the deck this year, as onions and garlic are said to like to be surrounded by herbs. 


Onions in one box, garlic and scallions in the other. Do you know when you buy scallions at the market you can get them to regrow? When you've cut off all the green, stick the white ends root down in a little water and they will not only root but regrow the greens. Last year I stuck them in the herb garden after they rooted and I was able to snip fresh scallions all season long - all from one 99 cent bunch I bought at the market! 


The geraniums I overwintered are doing so well, I'm incredibly pleased with that experiment. I overwintered 24 and it seems so far at least 16 have come back, which is not too shabby! Our local nursery charges $4.99 per plant for geraniums, so I just saved myself $79.84 plus tax. I will definitely be doing this every year from here on in!  If I remember, in the fall I'll show you how to do it....just remember to hold on to your geraniums and don't toss them in the compost bin.


My fig tree that was overwintered in the closet downstairs is also doing exceptionally well.  My dear friend Jan bought it for me last spring as a lovely surprise, and for some odd reason all the leaves fell off which worried me....but then they came back, to my delight! No figs last year, but I'm hoping this year we will get to enjoy fresh figs with Gorgonzola - one of my absolute favorite combinations - yummmm!

So that's what's going on in my garden in early May - what's blooming in your neck of the woods?

39 comments:

  1. Spring is at your home! How fun to see everything starting to bloom. We are all leafed out here in NC and most of the spring blooms have faded.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well you must be on to some of the summer blooms, Penny, perhaps your lilacs are in bloom already? I check each lilac daily to see how they are progressing, the three newest ones by the fence line I am praying will give me flowers this year!

      Delete
  2. Delightful photos! Thank you. We don't grow much, except flowers, now days. Nice to see the lovely area, where you grow your veggies. Fenced in, to keep critters away, I imagine.

    Here, we finally have wild flowers, like Violets and Dandelions. Yes, I love to see Dandelions. :-))) Sunny little flowers, which they are. :-)

    Our Spring turned right into summer, with muggy weather, T-storms, which I don't like. But finally seeing green, after last long winter, I won't complain.

    I'm with you! It's finally here! Spring! Or in our case, Summer! ,-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Our weather is quite muggy today as well, it feels like we bypassed spring completely this year and went straight into summer!

      Delete
  3. "I try to respond to each and every one of your sweet comments right here on my blog page!"

    I saw this, in your comment message...

    Myself, I "reply" to comments made, in my blog, by going to the blog of the commenter, and reading/commenting on her blog. I guess today, it's an "old fashioned" way. As so many people do the reply-to-comments-on-their-own-blog.

    But I don't like to go back to a blog's comments, after I have read/commented there. It's a second trip, actually. So I don't expect my readers/commenters, to have to come back to re-read again.

    We all love comments on our blog! That's the way I recognize my Dear Commenters... Commenting on _their_ blogs.

    Just sayin'.... :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do try to hop around and visit all those that visit and comment here, and I imagine some folks get my reply in their inbox? I get many replies in my inbox when I visit a blog and comment. Thank you for visiting!!

      Delete
    2. Not everyone has a blog so those of us do appreciate your reply here Debbie, just sayin........ Your home is beautiful!

      Delete
  4. Wow, you have been busy and done a ton of work. Love it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Spring is always such a busy time for a gardener, isn't it Marty?

      Delete
  5. Looks like Spring has come to your home too. I thought it would never come to ours. Just last week the trees hardly had leaves and now they are getting full. I am hoping to buy some flowers and veggies plants this weekend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We still have some cold nights in our forecast, Betty, so I won't be planting anything out yet....might put those geraniums in hanging baskets though!

      Delete
  6. How wonderful that the bulbs you cast aside grew! I have no luck with bulbs at all. Where we used to live, that was because the squirrels dug them up and ate them. No excuse here, I just can’t seem to grow anything from a bulb.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Did you ever try lilies, Pattie? The squirrels don't seem to like them, I have great luck with them!

      Delete
  7. Happy spring my friend:)
    i am so glad finally it arrived in you beautiful area and garden

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You and me both, Baili - this was a long, long winter!

      Delete
  8. love seeing all the pretty spring flowers! Love seeing what all you will grow this summer

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I walk around twice a day now looking to see what survived the winter!

      Delete
  9. I'm equally ecstatic when I start to see things coming up in the spring. You've done a wonderful job up there on that mountain!
    Brenda

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You'd love walking around my property Brenda although maybe your ankle wouldn't....

      Delete
  10. Sat. May 5th...

    Hope all is well, after that line of T-storms, which came across the area, last night.

    They were quick here, but the worst did not go over us. Happily.... But some areas must have had damage...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We had no damage, thankfully, but many in upstate NY did....we were lucky!

      Delete
  11. So nice to see spring happening at your place. I can hear your joy through your post.

    Have a lovely spring and happy gardening ~ FlowerLady

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's all I can do to drag myself out of the garden to go to work in the mornings, Lorraine!

      Delete
  12. Hi Deb,
    So glad to see you are finally seeing new life appear on the mountain. I am a happy girl that our Spring has finally sprung! Actually it has been more like summer. So I am wondering now if we will just go right from winter into Summer now!!! Your grass is looking so green. That is a great sign. Pretty soon you will be planting away.
    Hugs,
    Kris

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've started slowly planting, Kris, but only in pots or areas that I can easily cover in the event of a frost, like my herb boxes.

      Delete
  13. You know....I live in the woods too. I decided that I was going to turn my front lawn into naturalized area in the spring, so I threw a lot of crocus bulbs in the yard then dug them in. I have the best fed chipmunks in the world!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I planted a bunch of crocuses the first year I was here, Cindy, and I have all of TWO left - darned critters! They don't like daffodils, perhaps you should try them?

      Delete
  14. Spring bulb color is so pretty. I need to find somewhere to put some spring bulbs! I overwintered two geraniums in our garage and they made it. Not the prettiest right now but hoping they will rebloom. Nancy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If they made it through the winter they will rebloom, Nancy - once they are out in the sunshine for a while!

      Delete
  15. I don't know about you, Debbie, but those first blooms of spring for me are the best! In my region, we are currently just past the heavy pollen, and trees are almost fleshed out (my sassafras not yet), azaleas just beginning, and irises, poppies and roses soon to follow with blooms. I love seeing the different regions' timing. Happy gardening!

    ReplyDelete
  16. We have so much green and leaves on all the trees now since weve had warm weather the past 2 weeks. thank god!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The leaves are just barely beginning here, Ellen, yet when I drove down the mountain on Sunday it's full on spring down there, just 20 minutes away!

      Delete
  17. There's nothing better than watching spring gardens wake up! And you my friend have a quite a seat to witness all of first hand...enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do, Kim, I do!! I bet you were loving those warm summery days, my friend!

      Delete
  18. I am so impressed with the geraniums you overwintered. I do hope you remember this Fall to share how you did it. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope I remember also, Debbie - if I don't, feel free to remind me!! :)

      Delete
  19. Replies
    1. Isn't it funny how the weeds grow SOOOO much faster than anything else?

      Delete

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment...I truly love reading your comments and I try to respond to each and every one of your sweet comments right here on my blog page!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
09 10