Around The Yard In May

Wow, long time no post.
We have been very busy finishing up the planting in the vegetable garden, but it's done. I think this is the earliest I've ever had everything in! It has been another really wacky weather year.
Cross your fingers for me that this is finally going to be a good watermelon year.
Brace yourself - very pic heavy portion coming up. But I have so much to show you!

First, remember that Thanksgiving cactus that keeps going? And going? She's on her fifth (yes, fifth!) bloom cycle! She seems to be on an every two month schedule = October, December, February, April, and now gearing up for June. Weird . . . but wonderful. I have an ever-blooming TC! If she blooms in August, I can officially say I have a Thanksgiving cactus that blooms year round. How fab is that?!
:)


My Asparagus Fern made it through the winter, and quite happily, I'd say.


Ok, to the yard-
I took a quick pick of the peony and weigela hedge while the sun was shining because, well, you know what happens as soon as the peonies bloom = downpour! Sure enough, it rained last night and now they look like hell. ~sigh~


I can't get enough of this combo. Festiva maxima with wine and roses:




Festiva maxima is such a beauty!


All right, I'm done boring you with those. Onward!
The clems are looking pretty good. Not as many blooms as usual, but I still love them:


I got my first bloom on the May apple:


The dianthus are looking fab (these are either Fire Witch or Pink Cheddar):


The Halward's Silver spirea was in rare form this year:


And, of course, the Columbines always look so pretty and cheery:


And last, but not least, even the herbs are getting in on a little blooming action.
The chives are going gangbusters and have such pretty (and edible) flowers.


The thymes (regular and variegated) that I used to edge the walkway (one of my best design ideas ever!) are looking grand. They smell so wonderful when people walk the paths and brush their pant legs or ankles against them. Heaven!


We expanded the veg garden this year. This is the DH finishing up the rototilling so we can finally get the last thing in - sweet corn.(this shows almost half of the garden, the other half is over to the left).


We've even had some nice wildlife show up:
Hawks. They were hunting in a pack of five. I've never seen more than three hunting together. We've had a huge one sitting in the willow across the road every day, but trying to get a good pic is pretty much a practice in frustration.


And our hummers finally showed up. Late, but they're here, so yay! We counted 3 at once working over one weigela (one of their most favorites), so who knows how many we'll have hanging out in the yard this year. I hope they brought lots of friends!


Whew!
So, that's what's been going on in my yard so far this year. Now comes the time for the real work around the yard. I don't even have all my WS'd stuff planted yet :( Shhhh!

Happy (here come the blooms) Growing!
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May Apples, Cat Birds And Wire Worms

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Just a quick update -
Busy, busy!!!
I've gotten tons of WinterSown stuff transplanted to the flowerbeds . . . finally! This weather has been crazy. We had another freeze Wednesday night, so I was very glad I was a slacker getting things planted.

Time for some crappy pics. I think someone messed with the camera settings and I can't get a good pic of anything lately!

I finally got a bloom from the May Apple. Yay!



Unfortunately, something ate the buds off the Virginia Bluebells and there's no sign of the Blood Root this year. ~sigh~

But the Cat Birds are back (my nosey birdie), so that's another yay! They haven't been here long enough yet to start getting comfortable with me enough to almost let me touch them. It won't take them long. It never does :)



And (gross out warning!!!) the wire worms are already out there in huge numbers. I don't mind spiders, snakes, bugs, but these things totally gross me out! Ick, ick, ick! I imagine you're pretty darn glad that this pic is awful . . .



Happy (spring has started - for real) Gardening!
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Who Knew?

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Some cool things going on this week...

From 35F and pictures of snow in my yard to 84F in the span of three days - Who knew!?
I'm soooo not complaining. It's gorgeous, it's about time, and we deserve it, damn it!

Airborne Adventures is already up and flyin' around our house for the season - Who knew!?


(I didn't get to the camera quick enough before it got away!)

Icicle Pansies really will overwinter in my crappy zone 5 - Who knew!?



Jumping spiders love graham crackers - Who knew!?
Apologies to the squeamish, I like spiders :)



And I didn't get a pic, but I held the first black swallowtail of the year. I think he may have recently emerged because the flight muscles weren't working so well yet and he was in an area where I'd thrown last fall's dead stalks of parsley and fennel. I never even remembered to check in the fall before I cleaned up! (this is why I usually leave my yard such a mess all winter) Sadly, he eventually took flight.
I have never seen Black Swallowtails this early in the year. The first of May? Really? - Who knew!?

Happy (who knew!?) Growing!
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I'm Gonna Rip Their Ears Off!

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We've never had bunny trouble.
In 25 years, absolutely no trouble.
My niece thinks they're cute. Ugh! They are rodents with tinier tails and bigger ears.
Glorified rats!

This is the first time they've ever bothered anything in the yard. They don't even bother with the veg garden - we've let the clover run rampant for their benefit (not to mention it's a bee favorite) and they've been more than content to placidly play and lazily munch on that as I watch and warn them all summer that they'll be stew if they mess with my stuff. They listen pretty well in the summer, but obviously their little pea brains have no use for remembering those threats come winter. This is what havoc they accomplished this winter-

The only thing the hubs specifically wanted, picked out and planted for himself - dwarf burning bush. There's a bit of green popping on two out of the three, so I'm hoping:





My poor pink primrose gnawed right down to nubs:



Spirea damage:



Ugh!! I hate bunnies!

Ok, some good news.
The Martagon lilies from seed are on year four (started fall of 2006). Yay! it takes anywhere between 5 and 7 years for them to bloom, so possibly only one more year to wait? I have my fingers crossed.



And I have these survivors from last year's sown seed. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. I'm always glad when they show their cheery faces for a second year.



Happy (non-bunny) Growing!
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Live Eagle Cam

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This is very cool: Bald Eagle Nest Cam in Virginia

Eaglets are scheduled to be banded Wednesday, March 31 at 9:00 a.m. EDT. Follow the events in person at Norfolk Botanical Garden, or online on Eagle Cam.

I hope y'all can be on tomorrow to see it!
Pass the word. Quick! lol.
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Peek-A-Boo!

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Well, that didn't take long.
I brought the pots of caladium out to get started for this year on March 10, and one pot decided it was time to make an appearance already.



Still waiting on the other. Sometimes they take months to get going, so we'll see.

Unfortunately, the local herd of deer have also made themselves known.
~sigh~
Thanks for the warning?
(I know, pic stinks - they're those tiny dots on the horizon)



Happy (peek-a-boo) Growing! (that sounds a tad naughty...)
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The Bee Banquet

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I put the pot of forced hyacinths outside for a good watering and some sun. A few minutes later, they were smothered with bees:





Those pics are of just a few blooms - there are 16 plants in this pot and there were dozens forcing themselves inside the blooms of each plant. I was delighted to see them, but am a bit worried. I've never seen this many awake this early.
This is probably their first meal of the year since there is nothing blooming yet. The daffodils and tulips have barely poked the tips of their leaves above ground.
Hopefully there will be something else flowering for these hungry bees by the time the hyacinths fade. It's only March for pete sake, even the dandelions won't be blooming for at least another month. I'll keep putting the pot outside daily until the hyacinths are done for. Now I wish I had forced lots more.
The temps went directly from freezing to 50's F. It might be much too early for the bees to be awake yet. I sure hope they have some hive food left!

Happy (for the bees) Growing!
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Coleus - First Color

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The coleus I sowed on February 1 are starting to show their first colors:



This one is from a packet that I bought. I usually harvest and save my own in the fall, but for some reason I didn't do it last fall. I'm not sure if it was because it got too cold too quickly or I simply forgot. Both reasons are equally likely.

I'll probably end up with a dozen or so plants to spread around the shade garden and containers. With the trees having to be removed every few years, the amount of shade in my yard is shrinking quickly. The last, a large maple that got hit by lightning last summer and a tornado a few years ago, may have to come down this summer.

I'm glad I whined about not seeing much of the flock of robins that stayed around all winter - maybe they heard me since they've been showing themselves a lot more lately. Ok, so it has nothing to do with me, they're more interested in searching the mulch pile for bugs. That pile is apparently heating up pretty well as it's the only thing for miles that's almost bare of snow.



And some sad news - I think there's a hole in the liner of the bottom pond. Argh! I'm so mad!
That'll be something to deal with come June.

Happy (coleus) Growing!
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Winter Robins & Icey Beauty

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I was rather jealous of Flighty when he posted about his robins on the 21st.
I hadn't seen mine since December and was missing them.

People think they're strictly summer birds that leave for warmer parts in fall and return come spring, but this isn't completely true.
Though solitary birds most of the time, those that choose to stay around for the winter, mostly juveniles, will flock together and show up periodically through the winter months.

Even though there were about 50 of them in my yard, I wasn't as lucky as Flighty to get a good closeup shot, but I did manage to click a couple of one of them,



until he noticed me.



They are shy birds most of the time, but I've found that in winter they are overly skittish. I don't blame them since it's a lot harder to hide in all this winter bareness.

Since I had the camera out and the sun peeked out for a few moments, I thought I'd take some pics of these beautiful sparkling gems . . .



(I don't know what happened when I took this one, but it looks cool)



This is my favorite-



Although I am terribly sick of all this snow (another 10 inches coming today) there is still so much beauty out there it might not be all that bad. Yeah, I'm fibbing - winter still stinks!

Happy (winter beauty) Growing!
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Bats And Balloons

Nothing special going on in the garden, except that we still haven't gotten late blight. Fingers crossed!
It has now hit every county in NY, spread across almost all of the north east and wiped out a lot of fields in the south.
Hopefully I'll get to make lots of sauce to freeze again this year. Tomatoes and potatoes are going to be like gold in the US this year.

This is what came directly over our house and scared the crap out of me! lol. I couldn't figure out what the sound was, and by the time my brain caught up that I KNEW what that noise was, it had already passed over the roof. I still got some pretty good pictures as it landed in the field across the road though:









They had to pull it away from the trees it ran in to before they could deflate it (ouch).



The one in the back tried landing three times in the same field before they gave up and made an emergency landing farther down the hill. They had it on the nightly news - apparently, around here, we don't have anything more important to report on. lol.






A friend in the city had a bat invasion the other night. Since he managed to catch one, he brought it up to us to be released. City bat became a country bat! :)
We didn't get very good pictures since we didn't want to stress him out any more than he already was. The girls were oooing and awwwwing that he was so cute . . . until he showed his teeth.





So, that's what has been going on around here.
Hope everyone's gardens are doing well.
Happy growing!

The Tiniest Things

Sometimes, the tiniest things in the garden, the small stuff that is easily overlooked, are the coolest of all.