June 1, 2015 - Amazing Growth

Things are really growing fast!  I can’t believe how much the yard has changed since May first.  Here are some shots of the yard taken on June first.

New Flowers this week

There are many new things blooming and lots of things budding and pushing up shoots.  The warm weather this week is making Spring come quickly.  Just hope everyone stays careful until after the possible frosts we will be having next week.  But the rains we expect will be a good thing.

Daffodils and Bloodroot.  Had both in the yard for many years.

Not sure what these blue bulbs are.   The pink flowers are one type of Pulmanaria   And Forsythia of course.

 

There are also several Frogs in and around the pond so far.  No singing yet, but they do hang out on the cattail pot every day. 

Update a day later:  The frogs sang all night last night, and today there are at least twice as many in the pond.  Three pairs are hitched together, and soon I think we’ll have a lot of frog eggs in the shallow water.  The fish are already excited! 

Crocuses, Snowdrops and Squills, OH MY!

All have arrived in the last week, along with the Winter Aconite and many sprouting bulbs of tulips, daffodils, alliums, etc.  Nice to see.

       

For the Record: 2014 New Hostas & Heucheras

Under pagoda dogwood in back:  L to R

Heucheras: Frosted Violet, Lava Lamp, Cinnamon Curls, Bella Notte, Lava Lamp (not shown)

Under Forsythia:  

Heucheras:  Caramel, Marvelous Marble,  Lava Lamp

Under Charlie Brown Hostas: 

  back: Luna Moth (from hosta show)

front: Carnival  (from hosta Show

in "D" garden South, Heucheras:

Left:  Blackberry Ice

Right:  Frosted Violet

"D" garden north:

Astilbe White Sensation

Front walk Hosta garden:

Left:  Sum and Substance

Right Kiwi Full Monty

Also planted a new Hardy Hibiscus near the Willow stump:  Plum Fantasy Rose Mallow.  And two new Shasta Daisies in the pagoda garden:  Silver Princess Leucanthemum superbum.  Late last year planted Red -Leafed Mukdenia (Mukdenia rossi 'Crimson Fans') in the hosta garden under the back birches.  Bill planted three Frosted Violet Hostas in his garden also.  

Summer is Here!

I say this even though the high temperature yesterday was only in the mid sixties.  But it is supposed to get warmer soon.....

Here are some shots of what's going on in the yard right now.  My neighbor and I have both been allowing milkweed plants to grow all over, and she found about 10 monarch caterpillars on some of her plants.  So we each took some in and kept them fed on fresh leaves until they formed their chrysalises.  About 10 days later for each a beautiful monarch butterfly emerged.  They were set free in the yards and we see them all over now.






Watching for more caterpillars, but haven't found any yet.  They say that 90% of those sheltered in this way survive, vs. 90% being eaten if left outside.  We're doing our part.

We were gone for 6 days in late June and that meant we came home to massive overgrowth of shrubs, weeds, etc. that needed tending.  But things are looking much better now.


 
The monarda plants are beautiful now, and the coneflowers and daisies are spectacular.  We spent the last week and a half spreading 8 cubic yards of mulch and are very tired of that.




 

 This year I've been trying to convert places with invasive, difficult to manage plants like wild geraniums into easier to maintain plants like hostas, heucheras and astilbes.  It's getting harder to keep up with all this.

Spring Signs

It really is beginning to look as though Spring will arrive!  The fish in the pond are swimming to the top, and I am amazed that they all seem to have survived.

The bricks you can see are holding down the enormous clump of waterlilies that fill most of the bottom of the pond.  I don't see any growth there yet, but soon I hope.





Today we put up the greenhouse on the deck.  It just seems like the kind year that I want to have it there for protection and transition help.

We also dragged out the patio table and two chairs and it was actually nice enough out there today to sit briefly and listen to the birds sing.

Many tulips are coming up around the yard, and some crocus are popping out though not blooming quite yet.



This has been the worst year ever for evergreens browning.  The dwarf Alberta Spruce took it the hardest.  And the Yucca plant is likely going to have to be cut down to the ground, which will slow and/or reduce the blooming.  They are really just on the border of being hardy here I'd say.  I lose the top parts at least every other year, though the roots do survive and regenerate the plant

 

First Sprout!

The Alliums are always the first to emerge.  And of course it helps that this clump is only about a foot and a half from the south foundation of the house.  But I'll take it.  And on Monday I actually saw three fish swimming in the opening of the pond.  I'm amazed that any lived through this winter.