Garden Happenings

I have lots happening in the garden, both of my own doing and of nature's. Bulbs and other perennials have popped up all over the place and I've discovered the identity of a couple additional inherited plants as a result. And my husband and I have been hard at work getting the front yard into shape. I've also planted a handful of plants, with more on the way.

Let's start with the inherited plants. Daffodils came up a couple weeks ago, and now I have tulips amongst my blueberry bushes.

 

I'm not sure I approve of the locations of either of these bulbs, so they are probably going to be transplanted after they finish flowering, but I have enjoyed the unexpected spring display. The roses that I pruned back harshly are coming back nicely. And there are a bunch of grape hyacinth that sprouted at the base of this one.

I still don't know that I like the rose in that location, but I tried quite hard to dig it up and put it elsewhere and it refuses. Even if I wanted to just get rid of it, I'm not sure how I would get it out of the ground. So it might have won.

I couple additional inherited plants include a forsythia bush that I tried to kill last fall, not knowing what it was, but knowing that it was a giant unruly bush. I didn't kill it, and may keep it now that I know what it is (a couple uncut branches flowered this year). Luckily, cutting a giant unruly bush to the ground is exactly what I ought to have done to rejuvenate it.

There is also the trees, the dogwood (which I feared had been killed by ivy, but put out a very nice flower display this spring), the spruce, and the large unknown tree that could possibly be a white willow.

I planted around 50 strawberry plants, and they seem to be doing well. I was worried about them. They came like this:

With 25 plants in that plastic bag. And it snowed a couple days after I planted them. And the soil dried out more than I had realized at one point. I was sure they were all doomed. But except for a couple plants that a squirrel pulled up out of the planter, they all seem to be doing great.

I've also planted rosemary, rhubarb and tea. 

All small right now, but they'll fill out with time. The rhubarb especially. It seems to put out a new leaf every couple of days. The rosemary and tea are slower growing, so will take longer to fill out. I've planted a bunch of lettuce, oregano, and nasturtium seeds in my front planters. Hopefully some of them will sprout. The birds seem to be very interested in that planter, so may be pecking all my seeds/seedlings out of the ground. I need to get some bird netting.

Both the blueberry and kiwi plants that I planted last fall seem to be doing well this spring, which is great. I was really worried about the kiwi plants, which came as pathetic little sticks. Now they are putting out leaves and growing:

My lettuces overwintered just fine in my back garden bed and now are growing well and providing tender greens for salads. I'm hoping to build (or have my handy husband build) a cold frame this fall so that maybe next year we can have home grown lettuce all winter long.

And finally, we poured the arms of the cement paths in the front garden. They look great. I hadn't anticipated out much better they would make the whole thing look. We had gravel paths laid already, but the cement cobblestones give it a much more formal look. We still have to do the middle. That will be next week's task, after my legs forgive me.

Path in progress: