Spring 2006

It's my second spring in my new house (garden!). Seems last year's hard work in the yard has had some good pay offs--lots of bulbs have been revived, resulting in some unexpected but much appreciated spring color.

Among my goals is to have a wildlife-friendly area. I've been planting lots of trees, as well as fruiting shrubs and butterfly-attracting plants.

Among my plantings, the primroses and dianthus are coming back, along with garlic chives, parsley, and thyme. My little trees are starting to bud, and the chokeberry is poised to bloom any day. The forsythia have been at it for a while already. The knock out roses are leafing out, too.

The peonies that surprised me last spring are emerging from the ground again. Such a cool plant.

The apple trees planted by a former owner produced apples last year, but the fruit was wormy and not much good. This year, I've used a pest control that's poured around the trunk (rather than a spray which sounded like too big a project for me right now). Hopefully I'll get some good apples this fall. They're galas, one of my favorite varieties.

The spring thunderstorms have left soggy patches, so I'm looking for the right plants to fill those areas. Of course, they'll also have to tolerate the late summer dry spells.

The bird and butterfly zone seems slowest to come back. I'm moving some decorative grass there. (A gift from a friend, I had planted it in the crisis to stabilize the lovely mud hole left by the former owners along the side of the house. But, it just doesn't fit there, although it has done remarkably well in the very, very bad post-construction soil there.)

The side planting bed between the house and driveway continues to slowly come together. The euonymous is very happy there, along with the cotoneaster. The creeping phlox have been slow to establish, but are looking healthy this week, so I'm planting some more where the decorative grass had been.

So, it's coming together, slowly but surely. But, getting there really is half the fun!