garden notes

Spring seems very early this year. The primulas, which I find in various and surprising* spots in my garden, are starting to bloom. Because of the winter weed patch, though, I can hardly see their colors. So I spent about an hour this morning in the yard, pulling weeds and disturbing the soil a bit so that spring blooms will stand out against the black.

A lot more than blooming primulas is happening in the yard, though:

1. The crocuses are in the middle of their season; some are already beginning to droop.

2. The lilac tree has buds.

3. The parsley overwintered and is a potfull of green lace.

4. The daylily shoots are about 8 inches high.

5. Tulip and daffodil shoots are about 3 inches high.

6. There is action in the clematis – behind the skeleton pinwheels left from last year’s blooms, velvety leaves are sprouting from nodes all along gangly stems.

7. Love-in-a-mist plants are up from self-seeding – I’m not sure if they’re new or just plants that never matured and never died from last fall.

8. Leaves are starting to open at the ends of hydrangea stems.

9. Hard little buds are poking through the shallow earth that covers the tough old hosta root ball.

10. I think we’re sharing a rodent with the next door neighbors. That hole under the fence that separates our garden from their lean-to looks well-worn. I closed it with a couple of hefty rocks. If it reappears somewhere else, we’ll know that last year’s measures will need to be repeated (beware, all you neighborhood cats!).

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* 'surprising' because I move them out of the limelight in early summer after they've done their thing and forget where I've put them.