This is what my garden looked like just five days ago:
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| March snowstorm - check out the snow on the utility wires! |
And this is what I saw on a stroll around the yard today:
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| New growth on sedum |
Quite a few perennials are showing signs of
emerging spring foliage, including sedum, nepeta, geranium, iris, phlox, bergenia, and heuchera. I was actually able to do some work in the garden today and did a bit of an old foliage clean-up. Made my first delivery of the year to the compost pile! :-)
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| Helleborus orientalis - surviving winter foliage |
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| Bergenia - surviving winter foliage |
Now that the snow has melted I can see the
surviving winter foliage of small evergreen perennials: hellebores, bergenias, and heuchera. They look tattered and worn, naturally, but it's still refreshing to look out the window and see something other than an endless white blanket!
Something (slugs?) has been chewing on the hellebore foliage. I didn't think anyone ate hellebores - aren't they poisonous?
There is a lot of animal winter damage. Some local resident (presumably of the rodent clan) chewed my fothergilla and oakleaf hydrangea right down to the ground! Disappointing, but next year I will know to provide better winter protection against gnawing teeth.
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| Tulips emerging |
Bulbs are popping up all about the garden: early tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and even some allium. Oddly, what I thought would be the earliest bulbs to appear (chionodoxa, scilla, iris reticulata) have not made an appearance yet. I made the mistake of planting my earlier bulbs in frostier areas. This is my first spring in this new garden, so I made some bad guesses about which areas would warm up first. That's OK - I've been paying attention and now have the perfect spot scoped out for snowdrops next year!
I know there is not much to look at yet, but the signs of yearly transformation are visible. The speed of change is just dizzying. I have been waiting for spring to arrive for so long - I can't get used to the idea that it may actually be here!
Hello there again : )
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how fast things can change .. we have rain and wind and warm temps that will drop by tonight though .. BIG sigh !
I am trying to face cleaning up my poor hellebore bed .. so many of the leaves have been shocked by the weather , there will hardly be any left by the time I cut off the bad ones .. but they sprout again .. I just have to be patient. YES ! sedums come popping out of the ground so fast it is shocking LOL ! .. My garden needs a good thorough tidy up that I didn't give it in the Fall .. so lots of work to do for sure .. let alone take certain plant beds apart and reconstruct them .. the list is endless ? eeeeeeeeeekkkkk !
Your snow pictures are beautiful !!
Joy : )
Hello Joy, yes we are just popping back and forth with the weather here - it's a bit crazy. Hopefully the plants can handle it better than I can! My garden to-do list is enormous, but right now I'm full of spring energy and can't wait to get started. It felt so good to be able to get out there and do some trimming today!
DeleteRebecca, It looks like I am in the same zone (5) and in similar conditions to you because we have been back and forth with the snow and nice weather also. Glad that you had a melt to be able to see the good things that are coming! Looking forward to reading more this spring.
ReplyDeleteJulie, PA
Thanks for stopping by Julie - your blog and garden are so lovely! Glad to have found yet another mature garden to study for inspiration.
DeleteI hope spring really has arrived for you, and you don't get any more snow. It is always amazing to me how fast spring arrives after the plants have decided it's spring. It's almost like a race!
ReplyDeleteThanks Holley - yes, I feel breathless with how fast things are happening this year!
DeleteHellebores? I think I read recently that squirrels eat them?
ReplyDeleteOh no! We have more squirrels here than people... they do dig holes all over burying nuts, and eat bulbs, but I didn't know they eat foliage plants! Hopefully they didn't like the taste much and won't come back for more...
DeleteI wound up caging my fothergilla the first few years. Once it was big enough, if the critters ate a couple of branches I just considered it pruning. But if they eat it to the ground each year while it is trying to get established, they may actually kill it.
ReplyDeleteThank you Ms. Wis. - I guess I'll have to cage lots of my baby shrubs - fothergilla, hydrangea, and barberry all seem to be very tasty! Hopefully they have not been killed yet...
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