That Was Fast ! !

Well, here are Sparky and Gidget. They arrived a few days ago - Gardener's Supply sure was quick this time!

And with them was a flock of chickens . ..



who don't have any names. Actually, I'm glad because the names Gardener's Supply gave the pigs is kind of stupid. I can't imagine what they would come up with . . .

for six chickens. Steve said they were a "bit much" in the back garden and there are "just so many". I said that you don't have just one or two chickens - you have a flock. And, six is a good number for a flock.

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I picked up another "Welcome Dog". He's made of metal and has sort of creepy yellow marble eyes. From the picture he looks like a skeleton-dog -- it must be the angle because he cuter in real life!

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Besides the metal pigs and chickens, Spring came very rapidly. Within the past two days everthing has popped! Just what I was waiting for. Here are some of the flowers that are blooming ...

This is Corydalis. They self-sow all over the place and are blooming in huge masses. When they are done the foliage quickly yellows and disappears. Neat little plant.

Everyone recognizes Hyacinths. Sometimes they aren't reliably hardy in my Zone 5, but I've been lucky - these have been coming back for years.

In the rather hot afternoon sun today, their fragrance was almost over-powering! I was planting green onions nearby in containers, and was getting a headache from it! (Sweet smells bother me a lot - I can't wear perfumes and get sickish when someone who's around me does. What an awkward sentence!!)

I just love these Chionodoxa (Glory of the Snow). I posted some last week but they are so pretty I had to do it again. These are growing all over - in the lawns, the vegetable garden and on the woodchips. I don't know how the seeds get around - animals or the wind probably. They are such a surprise each Spring.

At the front door are the wonderful blue flowers - Scilla bifolia. They are another bulb that reseeds like mad. I'd only planted a few here a couple of years ago and now it's completely full. In Summer a Hosta is right in the middle of this planting area.

This is a close-up them. Isn't blue a great Spring color!!

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I thought the deer had eaten all of the tulips in the Main Garden but I see they missed a couple. I took these pictures for posterity because I'm not sure if they will be here when I get up tomorrow morning.

These are species and kaufmanniana varieties. I especially like the tiny species tulips and have planted hundreds but the deer, voles, squirrels, chipmunks, woodchucks,and rabbits have made short work of them. Sometimes I feel like I'm just setting up dinner for the wild animals. If all the countless bulbs I'd planted in the Main Garden had survived, it would be jam packed and look like a kaleidoscope!

Notice the bee coming in for a landing at eleven o'clock. Totally unplanned!!

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Spring wouldn't be Spring without lots of Daffodils. I've planted hundreds of these also, and here are some of the different kinds ...

These are my latest addition. They are an extremely miniture trumpet variety. I used my hand to show you how small they are (you probably don't believe I lost all that weight from the look of my chubby, short-fingered, man-like hand - but I have!)

What's so unusual and endearing about these daffodils is that there are multiple stems and each plant is like a little bouquet. They are ultra-mini. I'm sorry I don't have their name off-hand and when I find it, I'll post it.

Good old yellow trumpets .

Rip Van Winkle is this guy's name.

This is a favorite mini - Jetfire.

A fragrant split-cup variety that I don't have a name for.

Don't know the name of these etheral beauties either.

These are Ice Follies and I highly recommend them. They have lots of flowers and don't decline over the years like some do. They are eye-catching and sturdy too. Oh yes, they are really cheap as well.

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The temps are supposed to be in the 60s and 70s this week so I brought most of my basement grown seedlings outside. This is a shaded spot at the front entrance and good for hardening off.

The ones that are especially tall and/or sprawling are my ground-cover petunias. They grow so fast once they "catch", as I call it. The smaller more uniform plants are impatiens. Notice on the far left are some Quaking Grass seedlings.

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I'm glad we were able to get most of the gardens cleaned up when we did. Once the weather warms, everything grows so rapidly that your "window of opportunity" is very small.

In a few weeks I'll get the pond scrubbed down and put out the fish. The last white fish I had just died (in fact I can't find the body.) She (I don't know why I always think something albino is a "she"??) was laying on her side at the bottom of the pool for a week. I'd touch her every day and she's swim away. I just can't toss out a live fish and she didn't look like she was suffering (it's hard to tell with fish, isn't it?) so I was on a sort of death-watch. Well, now it's a moot point because I can't find her - dead or alive! Probably under the rock shelf that Steve had constructed in the Fall. I just don't want to reach under there with a bare hand -- icky.

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So, this week will be another vacation Friday and I'll work up the soil in the vegetable garden and then all that's left is to wait. Wait to do the things I like the most - find some new and unusual plants at garden centers and get my containers planted.

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Come to the edge.

We might fall.

Come to the edge.

It's too high!

COME TO THE EDGE!

And they came

and he pushed

and they flew . . .

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Christopher Logue (1926 - )

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Bye for now,

Alyssa