Sunday, April 7, 2019

more spring blooms and a neurotic dog



We're having a welcome rainy day, well, except for the fact that after it stops it will be too wet outside to attend to any of the remaining spring chores and plans and plantings for early summer. But we need the rain as the ground is dry and cracked even though the dog has been a quivering and panting mess, ears up and tail tucked since the first raindrop fell and the lightning and thunder makes her want to hide behind the washer or refrigerator. There is no consoling her and this will continue until the rain stops or she exhausts herself.


The last few days I've mostly been just piddling out in the yard as opposed to doing anything major, pulling up handfuls of seed spikes every time I go out in my futile attempt to control and diminish the hay grass that has invaded the big backyard, potted up some stuff to share with my neighbor Judy, got my giant zinnia seeds in starter pots. I did get the white and purple iris bulbs from the Buddha garden dug up that haven't bloomed in 3 years and man, were they deep and embedded in the roots of the maple tree, the althea, and the little dogwood which are all clustered together. It'll be awhile til I get them replanted as I have to decide where to put them somewhere else and I still have the oxblood lilies that I dug up out of a nearby ditch last fall to get in the ground and the clump of yellow walking iris that my sister gave me.

The poppies continue to be magnificent and a rogue pink one showed up among all the red, another big frilly red bloomed, and I did get a purple!


The love-in-a-mist are finally starting to bloom, the rocket larkspur is filling out as is the german verbena.


The amaryllis are starting to bloom and the mock dogwood has been gorgeous if very early. Seems to me it was past prime but still in bloom in June last year.


And I am still totally unmotivated to do any art preferring to spend my days outside while the weather permits. There will be plenty of time for art during the long hot summer.




13 comments:

  1. so much fecund beauty around your digs! WOW. We are still in cherry blossoms and daffodils and somewhat of a drought. Summer will be tinder and I am guessing , loads of fires. I will have to leave, lungs can not abide. Nice job Ms. Green Thumb! - have you tried a weighted blanket or vest for the pooch, sometimes that is all it takes to chill out from big booms.

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  2. I love how you move plants and flowers and even trees around. It is your art, your canvas, and gorgeous it is!
    Thank you for all the eye candy photos.
    Your little girl looks as sweet as can be. Lucky you, lucky her.

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  3. I opened your blog and stared at the riot of color in the first picture, from the top and the flags through the art piece and then all the flowers. Everything is loving the rain, Mimi excluded.

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  4. I am so envious of your garden. It's nearly impossible to go outside because I don't have the energy anymore. Lucy was the same way when the storm hit here at 6 am this morning. She woke me up by trying to get underneath me while I was sleeping. She was a freaking mess all morning.

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  5. So, so, SO beautiful! Ellen! You are a talented gardener indeed! And your artist's eye makes your work even more spectacular. I would say that I'm jealous but I know that if I got my ass outside more and worked harder I could have more flowers. They would not be as beautiful as yours but still. I have no excuse.
    I am glad for your rain. There is nothing like the gift of it when we really need it.

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  6. Only thing blooming so far here is my daffodils. Lots of green sprouts popping out of the ground. Soon my tulips will pop open and then the day lilies. I am ready to be done with winter! Your poppies make me so jealous! I had some gorgeous blue poppies in my flower bed in Minnesota. Paid a pretty penny for live plants and enjoyed them tremendously. I was assured they would be back the next season. I was looking forward to my little perennial garden coming to life and came home from work one day to find that HeWho should never touch a garden had dug them all up and they were laying dead on the sidewalk. He was trying to help me by getting the flower bed ready for new plants. Did not utter one word to the man for two days!

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  7. I think there are few flowers as beautiful as poppies. Your garden looks fantastic.

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  8. I cannot decide what is more useful: a very early start like yours or our long slow development of the seasons and garden treasures over here. Perhaps ours lasts better than yours? The seasons are so much more defined here and there’s much work to be done outdoors for most of the year. I am finding it almost too much now.
    But then I look at all your wonderful early bloom and I get quite envious.

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  9. This is just gorgeous! We have a way to go. Still at the tulip stage but fruit trees in full blossom glory.
    Funny enough here in Germany that verbena is called Argentinian verbena

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    1. how funny is that! it's as tall as me. usually there is more larkspur growing among it but this year the larkspur volunteered away from it.

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  10. Lovely blooms, looks like summer there.Getting some bulb bloom ,but may have a touch of snow over the weekend

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  11. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous! Poor pup - I should see if I can make her a weighted blanket :)

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  12. I love the fields of red poppies in photos and while my mother had not trouble growing poppies in Colorado, I cannot have much luck here in the mid-Atlantic...too wet?

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