We've had mostly warm days with plenty of rain and things are growing fast and furious these days. I don't think we've been below freezing for a few weeks now. The grass is especially happy in this kind of weather and we had to cut it twice last week.All of this rapid growth is interesting to watch along with the various perennials that are emerging--some of which I recognize and some of which I don't. There are a few I'm still on the fence about as to whether they are are weeds or not. I have a lot of learning to do in this area. Unfortunately, the poison ivy and other invasive plants are starting to leaf out, too. I learned my lesson in my old yard and know it's best to spend a year or two trying to eliminate the vines and invasives before doing much else. Otherwise, we'll end up with more problems than we started with. I have so many ideas that will just have to wait.
While all of this is exciting to discover, the most exciting thing is what I discovered a couple of days ago. I found a nest being built in one of our nest boxes. It looks like a bluebird's nest although I haven't seen any bluebirds around. Time will tell.
Here are a few pictures of things I've seen during the past week. Some of them don't show exactly what I want, but it's been raining for a few days now and that has prevented me from venturing out to take other shots.
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| Except for the dogwoods, most of the trees are done blooming and are now leafing out. |
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| However, you can still find a few lingering blossoms like the one on this apple tree. |
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| Several bushes are in full bloom like these azaleas. |
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| And the 4 or 5 lilacs that are in the yard. I really need to count sometime. I haven't seen many bees. Mostly carpenter bees like the one on these lilac blooms. |
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| This back corner bed looks like it was a very nice bed at one point. Right now the ground covers have totally taken over, but I see various things popping up. Earlier there were a few daffodils blooming here. Now I also see day lily and iris leaves. |
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| I uncovered this plant in the corner bed which looks like it could be a dianthus. |
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| Nearby, were some coral bells. |
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| The yellow lamium in the corner is pretty, but very vigorous as most ground covers are. |
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| Outside of the formal flower beds, I found a few of these volunteer purple flowers from the neighbor's yard. |
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| And a nice patch of violets. |
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| As I've been digging around in various places, I've found the soil is rocky with both big and small rocks. |
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| We cleaned this corner out and then I planted grass seed. This is an attempt to have something competing with the weeds that will try to take back over. We may add flower beds here sometime in the future. |
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| The grass is coming up, but I don't know how well it is going to compete with the hardy weeds. |
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| This looks just like the pine needle bluebird nests we got at our old house. |
This is so exciting, discovering what plants are growing at your new house! I love all the flowers but I think my favorite are the dogwood tree (so gorgeous!), the lilacs and the carpet of violets, both of which remind me of my beloved grandmother.
ReplyDeleteHave fun gardening and landscaping!
Out of all of the beautiful, spring flowering trees, dogwood is my favorite. I think because its blooms are a bit simpler, and I remember them on the hillsides and in the woods where I grew up.
DeleteThat's wonderful that a bird found your nesting box already. The lilacs looks beautiful. We are about a month away from lilacs and dogwood, here. I think you're wise to delay planting much until next year. It will give you a year to plan, and see what is already there.
ReplyDeleteHave a great day!
The nest is in the old box, not the new one. Maybe the old one smells right. But soon enough, they will find the new one. If not, we may move it. The hard thing for placement is to put it in the right spot, but not a difficult place to mow around.
DeleteWe don't have dogwood trees here so I have to enjoy them vicariously--thanks for sharing your picture! So many pretty things in your yard. I wish I was more like you and Lili and enjoyed digging around, but I really don't care for that job. If we had more money I'd hire someone .... I love the end result!
ReplyDeleteWe are enjoying blooms much earlier than usual--the flowering trees are in full blossom and I expect the redbuds to come out soon. Tulips are a big deal around here (I live close to Holland, MI which is known for its tulip festival--SO pretty!) and the earlier varieties are poking their heads out. I have my usual bird's nest (wren? finch?) on top of my front door wreath but no eggs yet. The weather has been what I consider to be perfect for the past 2 days--70s and sunny--amazing how happy I feel! :)
Good weather can really perk up your mood, can't it? The dogwoods I remember from when I was growing up were the ones I saw in the woods. They are a native understory tree that along with the redbuds gave a great show every spring. It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized people planted them in their yards.
DeleteI bet the Tulip Festival must be beautiful. Tulips are blooming in the yards around here. We had some in our old yard but the squirrels liked them better as a snack than as a flower.
I remember driving to FL every year over spring break to visit my grandpa--sometimes we were lucky and the dogwoods would be in bloom. Mom and I spent our time saying "oh, did you see how pretty that one was?".
DeleteThe redbud popped yesterday. After a rainy night, we woke up to lots of green.
I feel like we did a green-overnight a week or two ago. Even though I love the flowers and greening of spring, I'm always a little sad to see the greys and browns of winter go. I really like to see the shape of the trees without any leaves.
DeleteWow! Looks beautiful! I think the mystery plant does look like dianthus. It does really well here in the hot dry climate. Anyhow, I'm all ready to get out and garden but alas, we're expecting 6 inches of snow this weekend! Oy!
ReplyDeleteSix inches of snow! I heard something on the news that some of the ski resorts in Colorado will be open later than usual this season because of the more snow coming. Or at least that's what I heard. Are you having more late snow than normal?
DeleteActually, we're mostly just having more weird than normal. This winter (meaning the entirety of this snow season - fall through spring) was set to go down as the least snowiest in Denver history, so the snow is quite welcome from a moisture standpoint. Plus, April is usually our second snowiest month (behind March). So this isn't really that unusual - it's just that we got so spoiled with all of the super mild weather that it feels like a bit of a shock to the system!
DeleteAnyhow, the mountains got hammered in January, and it was looking like it was gonna be a banner year for the ski resorts, but then the snow just stopped. Now that most of the resorts are closed it's picking up again. But a few are still open, and one (Arapahoe Basin - which is way up above timber line) will be open until June - but that's pretty typical for them.
So I guess one could say this is a normal sort of crazy for us! :)
I think you have lots of time for planting later. I agree about getting the weeds and vines under control first!
ReplyDeletePlenty of time later. However, I have a friend that's ready to share all kind of plants from her yard. I have a lot more sun here than I did in the past, so she has more to share. I think she's more excited than I am.
DeleteI'm enjoying discovering your garden with you! Loved seeing the dogwood flowers, lilacs, and the violets the most!
ReplyDeleteI sort of have a love/hate relationship with violets. I think they're very pretty, but they easily spread and are hard to get rid of when they're in a place where you don't want them. However, in the particular place that you see in the picture, they are very welcome and make me smile every time I see them.
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