Things are stirring all over, as the garden takes its ritual steps towards bloom. Splashes of color rising up from dead leaves and tinges of green everywhere. It's time at last to rake away all the dead leaves, a job I started yesterday but which today's heavy rains have thwarted. Happily I shot these yesterday, when the skies were soft and still.
A view through the middle of the garden.
The early daffs are already fading, but waves of later varieties will take their place.
A second wave of daffodils, promising many more to come.
Until the dogwood blooms out, its branches are comforted by dog ornaments.
Bushes that cheer us all winter, the evergreen Euonymous and aucuba. Can't quite see it yet, but the Euonymous is beginning to push forth new growth that will create a breathtaking crown of gold soon.
Oh Joy! The blueberries are budding.
Though its blooms are so small as to qualify as "insignificant," a honeysuckle is lightly scenting the garden now.
Creeping through dead leaves and ivy and strawberry begonia, the tinest and palest blue crocus in the garden.
My first spring here, I threw down a bunch of yarrow seeds. And nothing happened. Not a damn thing. But a year later, I saw one or two yarrows volunteering yards away from where I'd sown those seeds. Hmmm. I transplanted them to a better position. And now? Let's put it this way: does anyone want some yarrow? I can't believe the plants are already starting to come in. This will be a dense bush by June.
Pansies don't die here in winter but they don't flower much either. Here's one brave little soul rising to meet spring.
