The Landscape Awakens

The nights may be cold, the days may be dreary, but spring has crept in nevertheless — slowly this year, not in an explosion of buds and blooms, but incrementally until I am forced to concede the season has overtaken winter. What winter? We hardly had one this year. Lou was outside yesterday, and mosquitos the size of land rovers bludgeoned him. With exceptionally mild winters two years running, the bugs have continued to breed, and I am left wanting at least a month of hard frosts. Too late now. 

But joy! The landscape is awakening. Cheery daffodils are always among the first blooms, and other flowers are joining them in the early spring garden.Clockwise from top left: Daffodils, candytuft, flowering quince, and snowflakes (Leucojum)

Edgeworthia is has been blooming with the daffodils for several weeks now. They remind me of ballet tutus!Above is what you see from the topAnd this is what you see from below!

Hellebores continue to amaze me. They are meant to be studied. Mine were once named varieties, but they have wantonly mated with each other and produced babies of questionable heritage. I love them all. (But I still ogle new hybrids with all sorts of frills and uppity pedigrees and prices to match. I would love to have some of those too!)

This is the year of the birdhouse. Among others, I recently refurbished an old cabin style birdhouse, and it has found a new home in the front garden in the area formerly inhabited by the cancer tree. I planted several shrubs in this area, unseen in the following photos and still dormant. I also plan to put flowers around the base of the birdhouse. The old iron stand once belonged to my father, who used it in his workshop with a piece of machinery bolted to it. I buried its heavy cross shaped bottom so that the appearance is more of a traditional post. The cancer tree, by the way, hasn't given up. Already I have found several sprouts insidiously snaking out of the ground, and I suspect I will be battling it with herbicide for a while.

Forsythia, seen above behind the birdhouse, is another early spring bloom that brightens even the gloomiest day. Another one is located at the edged of the woodland garden:

Camellias are blooming in several areas. The lovely shell pink one below is a mystery. Long ago we had to move a red flowering one from its spot behind the mailbox because of nearby construction. Some years later a new one sprouted in its old place, coming up through the low growing junipers that now occupy the site. I let it grow, and I was surprised when it produced a completely different and more beautiful flower than its presumed parent.

Top photo is the gorgeous mystery camellia. Below are two photos of another lovely camellia, Taylor's Perfection, located in the woodland garden.

Finally, here is a peek at a meandering moss path in the woodland garden, just as morning sunlight comes streaming through the trees. I hope to see more of this sunshine, now that spring is here!

May your heart be filled with sunlight, no matter what the weather may be....Deborah 

Now I'm Famous, Briefly

A stranger was standing in front of our house, taking photographs. My husband, being of suspicious nature, first considered the shotgun. We live inside the city, but our lot is pretty much at the end of the world, and folks don't come snooping without a reason. However, since the stranger was a pleasant-looking lady, he decided to go out and speak to her. I wasn't at home at the time, and later Lou told me she liked our garden and wanted to talk to me. The outcome of all this is that we were awarded Yard of the Month in the Helena News!

I mentioned the coveted Yard of the Month award in a long ago post, An Award No Lizard Can Give. In my mind it's right up there with the Academy Awards, although there is no prestigious ceremony where I get to wear a low-cut gown, nor are there television reporters waiting for my important words, nor monetary gains of any sort. Still. There's a photograph and a nice little article in the local news, recognition of my garden and a brief moment of fame.

So I am feeling happy about my garden, despite the weeds that are taking full advantage of our early spring. Some flowers have been blooming since January and are still putting on a satisfying show.

First are daffodils, including the pink 'Salome':

Other daffodils were planted as part of a naturalizing mixture and are nameless, but still lovely:

Next are hellebores; no other flower lasts longer or ages more gracefully:

Camellias:The top photo is of an old camellia bush that was by our mailbox when we first moved here. We later transplanted it to its current location in the Front Garden. The second row shows a red camellia from that same shrub and a pink camellia which sprouted by the mailbox after we had transplanted the first one. I'm not sure how that happened. The third row is Camellia 'Taylor's Perfection' and the red 'Gunsmoke'.

Some blooms have appeared more recently:Clockwise from top left: Muscari, grape hyacinths; Trollius; Viburnum burkwoodii; Hepatica; Dogwood, just beginning to bloom; the wildflower Trillium; another wildflower - Butterweed, Packera glabella; Azalea, just beginning to bloom.

Early blooming forsythias were beautiful till heavy storms of the past few days stripped many of their flowers. These photos were taken about two weeks ago. There is a secret entrance to the Woodland Garden just to the left of the large forsythia that grows beside the drive. It is down a fairly steep hill, and I have put in a few flat rocks to serve as steps. Someday I hope to have some real stairs here. Look close in the second photo, and you can catch a glimpse of our Dinosaur Egg, perched on a wooden pedestal:

Mr. Rabbit guards the main entrance to the Woodland Garden, and one can see the groundcover indigofera beginning to leaf out next to him:

This shot is from the main entrance. It is comparable to the one I featured in my last post, similar view taken two years ago. The tree in the upper left with purple blooms is 'Jane' magnolia.

Here's another view seen from our driveway. The first photo is the side of a birdhouse, the second one is the front of the same birdhouse. Some bird builds a nest every year here, but I have never seen baby birds being raised in it.

 

This is the old birdhouse in the Woodland Garden. Moss is beginning to grow on its roof:

Speaking of moss, I love the look of this moss, growing in a field:

Finally, redbud trees are in full bloom:

Spring is here! I hope that wherever you are, whatever the season you are in, that you are safe and comfortable and able to enjoy nature's blessings.   Deborah