Spring Flowers in the Front Gardens

A lovely view of so many flowers and colors in the front yard gardens

Tulips in the center beds

Forget-me-nots and Darwin hybrid tulips in bloom, with foxglove and columbine soon to follow

Tulips and azaleas with apple trees in center bed

Tulips after a big rainfall

Apeldoorn Elite tulips

Japanese maple tree with a few Apeldoorn tulips along the walkway

So much spring color!

Tulips in center bed with euphorbia and emerging bluebells

Pink Impression tulips under maple tree shadows

Fun with Tulips

 

Tulips in front of the wood shed make for a little garden whimsy...

Strategic tulip planting--no need to get to the firewood in the springtime!

Spring Vegetables

So much new growth!  Spinach, onions, mustard, kale, breadseed poppies, shelling peas, strawberries, calendula , and columbine

Trellis for snow peas with herbs, veggies, and flowers surrounding it

Lettuces, chives, snow peas, mints, oregano, rosemary, and thyme

Shelling peas with tulips, rhubarb, and cloches for kale and cauliflower

Snow peas with radishes and chives

Snow peas with arugula and chives

The bean trellis is ready, but until it warms up, we've planted a variety of greens for the cool season.

The wide view from the deck

Espalier apple tree bed planted with arugula, lettuces, mustard, alyssum, sweet peas, and tulips

Pac choi, broccoli, radishes, and tulips, with strawberries up above

Fruit Trees & Maple Trees

Glacier cherry tree in all its leafed-out, blossoming glory

Italian plum tree with trumpet daffodils

Blossoming pear trees

Two glorious maple trees, one large and one small

Tulips, Peas, & Raspberry Canes

A little garden whimsy--a row of Negrita tulips between arched pea supports made of recently-pruned raspberry canes. Note the fully-leafed-out canes that seem to want to keep growing. When I put them in over a month ago, there was no foliage showing at all.  Maybe they'll take root and we'll have a new raspberry patch next year!

** Photo credit: Ben Miller ** 

Early Spring Bouquet

Dutch Master trumpet and Ice Follies daffodils mingling with red flowering currant branches

Daffodils!

The first daffodils from last fall's plantings are blooming right now.  Such a cheery bit of sunshine for the garden! 

Dutch Master Trumpet Daffodils

These trumpet daffodils are in the very back corner of the gardens, flowering in front of an evergreen huckleberry and surrounded by other lovely perennials like tulips, Oriental poppies, and forget-me-nots. 

Tête-à-Tête Daffodils

These Tête-à-Tête daffodils are pictured here in the front yard center bed with crocuses, hyacinths, and soon-to-be-blooming bluebells and sweet woodruff.

Kale & Spinach

A pretty basket filled with two kinds of overwintered kale and spinach!  Ben had asked me to pick some of each to add to a smoothie.

Snow in the Garden

A light dusting of snow this week made for some good end-of-winter, beginning-of-spring garden photos.

 

Newly-planted deck pots filled with chives, kale, snow peas, snap peas, lettuces, and tulips.

 

Glass cloches kept these lettuces warm and insulated from the cold.

Sturdy new squash trellis, surrounded by hardy herbs, and lettuce under cloches

Overwintered spinach and kale, as well as newly-planted spinach and onion seedlings

Pac choi seedlings, just planted out the day before

Pretty purple Remembrance crocuses on the perennial path

The hellebores have been blooming for a while now

Hellebores among the primroses and daffodils

First daffodils

Potted tulips and grape hyacinths just set out for some early color:  Tulipa kaufmanniana "Fritz Kreisler" with Muscari aucheri "Blue Magic"

Lupines just emerging

First Hollywood plum blossoms

 Crocuses in the front yard beds: "Joan of Arc" white with "Remembrance" and "Pickwick" purples

Newly-planted-out daffodils: the beautifully aromatic yellow and orange Narcissus "Marinette" alongside white and yellow "Tete a Tete"

Narcissus "Tete a Tete" and Tulipa "Turkestanica"

A Lovely Winter Bouquet

The hellebores looked beautiful today, even after a bit of snowfall, so I brought a few inside to brighten the table.

The Year of the Trellis

What does a gardener do in the middle of February when it's too cold to garden very much?  Well, she browses beautiful garden books and websites, and then she does some garden-planning, of course!  That's what led to this winter urge to build things for the upcoming months.  So...

Here's my newly-built trellis for the spring and summer gardens! Imagine snow peas climbing upward in the spring along with radishes and arugula planted underneath, and then cucumbers replacing peas in the summertime. Soon I will add some chicken wire along the fronts of the trellis so the pea tendrils & cucumber vines have a little more to grab onto. It was fairly simple to build using 1x2s, a few carriage bolts, and some finish nails. Oh, plus some power tools.  So far I've built two of this variety, and another larger-scale trellis for growing squash.  Come on, spring!

 

Autumn Asters

Two lovely purple asters in the front garden

Today's Late Summer Harvest

Cucumbers, zucchini, kale, beans, and carrots

Raspberries and blueberries

Sunflowers!

Lemon Queen perennial sunflowers

Annual sunflowers in front of the bean trellis

Backyard gardens with perennial and annual sunflowers

First Pear Harvest!

Rescue and Orcas pears from the two young trees we planted last year. 

The pear trees are beautiful this year, and we've been pleasantly surprised to see such lovely fruit developing so early on.  We tasted one of pears already, and it was delicious!     

Fresh & Beautiful Garden Foods

This is my favorite new home-grown summer potluck dish: cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and calendula flowers.  They're all edible, and quite delicious!