wisteria flower buds

While the past few days have warmed to an unseasonable 90 degrees, the wisteria is beginning to leaf out as its flower buds are continuing to expand.Some other views of things surviving this late april heat wave...

vegetable beds before and after

Getting the vegetable beds ready for planting this season, I dug up a few old photos of how that area of the garden used to look.

April 2007
compacted gravel, dirt, a few determined daylillies and bleeding hearts

June 8, 2008

before transplanting vegetable seedlings

April 2009
new spinach bed dug in, rear bed cleared for more planting space, grass struggling to come back after tomatoes overshadowed and killed it last season, hydrangea just barely leafing out.

more then and now

The most frequent pic I seem to take with my phone is this view from out a back window. You can see in these photos the hydrangea and daffodil bed I built against the west fence with compost and rocks uncovered when digging it in; the center beds that I uncovered, weeded and buttressed with more stone; the spring bulbs and other things I planted; the soil and gravel that I replaced in the areas of the yard that were being used as a parking lot; and the results of the aerating and seeding John and I did in successions that first summer and then again in the spring the year after we moved up here. The old brick patio was a complete surprise to us--as were all the east beds, as they were hidden under weeds in the for sale photos and covered with leaves and snow the first time we looked at buying the house.

April 2007 (before we moved in)

April 2008

May 2008

April 2009

two seasons later

BEFORE (april 2007)

AFTER (april 2009)

spinach, peas and seeds

While tomatoes, beets, marigolds, lettuce, cucumber and morning glories were sprouting under lights this month, the peas and spinach that I had direct sewed with my mom's help in March were emerging.

April 23rd

Peas took nearly two weeks to show any signs of life, but by early April they were starting to look like they'd make it. Only 1/3 of the seeds I sewed germinated--next time I will try to inoculate them beforehand. Around April 10th I sewed a few more in the bare patches.

April 6th.

partially constructed bamboo lattice, April 6th.

April 19th

April 19th

The Spinach seedlings emerged in step with the peas, and by April 19 they, too, were taking off.

Peonies transplants are happy

With the house I inherited two stunning peony plants that someone must have planted long ago. After I cleared out all the trees and sumac and other weeds out of the overgrown back beds in the spring of 2007, several hidden treasures emerged the following spring including these, which bloomed profusely even though they were partially buried under a stone wall (photo from May 31 2008):

To make way for the rest of my vegetable bed that I planned for this season, last fall I moved this peony to the front where it would get more sun and divided its neighbor--moving half to the upper bed where it might get a little less sun but hopefully will still bloom--and half to the front. I've read that it may take a few years after moving for them to bloom again, but today I spotted three little buds on the large one. It is really shooting up this month:

April 10th.

April 16th.

Today.

The smaller one I divided shows no signs of budding but is growing well:

Early tulips blooming

Seems the voles didn't eat all the front tulips after all. I'm amazed that the little war I waged with peanut butter and mouse traps actually worked. By April 19, the Salmon and Pink Impressions in the front were all blooming and the yellow climbing roses were leafing out behind them.

Daffodils too...



And today...

Roses emerging

All 5 ramblers and three yellow climbers made it through the winter ok. I lost one of the tallest canes from the rose on the bay window to canker as well as a few tips but most looked healthy and were budding up by the end of March. For some reason most of the leaves were still clinging on to the yellow climbers so I stripped them off in March to prevent the new shoots from contracting anything they are harboring. The Nantucket rose on the front west corner and the one in the protected space between the bay window and the stoop were fully leafed out and growing by April 2. The rest were budding.

Early Spring

Well, winter finally seems to be in actual retreat. The chindoxia was blooming on April 2. The front tulips that I planted last fall survived several freezes in March and a late snowfall and were up 3 or 4 inches at the beginning of the month. The snow-in-the-summer seems to have never gone dormant all winter and is taking over the west side of the front wall. The hydrangea are starting to emerge, although the front three only from the base. Perhaps they needed some protection this winter?