May Garden - 2nd Half - 2021

I'm not feeling inspired, so here are the pics.  When the mood strikes, I'll rearrange them and add commentary.  

 

April Gardens 2021

 After seeing our crocus, snowdrops, and our first daffodil in March, 2021, we were looking forward to lots of daffodils and tulips in April.  Mother Nature had an April Fools joke for us, and we got four inches of snow on April 1.

This is the view from the computer room window.  The tall circular cages protect the apple trees from deer.  The small ones along the hedge protect the hosta from deer and rabbits and woodchucks.

And there is a fence around the garden to protect the tulips from rabbits and woodchucks and deer.

We love having flowers in the house, so on April 7, some twigs were cut from the forsythia to force.

Our first daffodil bloomed on March 31 this year.  Our first small bouquet was April 10, and the forsythia twigs are blooming.

and by April 19, we were able to have flowers all over the house.

April 19 brought our first dandelion.  It is growing on a south-facing wall under the exhaust from the furnace, so it is early!  It is accompanied by some periwinkle.

The strawberries are in for a shock - they are blooming now!  

They can take some frost, but April is likely to have hard freezes.

These strawberries are everbearing, so it may not hurt their production this summer, but these blooms are unlikely to be successful.  It's still fun to see.

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Don't these look like they belong in a medieval tapestry?  This is Fritillaria, Crown Imperial.  It's about two feet tall, with a single flowering part at the top.  It grows from a bulb.  Fritillaria has the "advantage" of smelling like skunk.  This attracts carrion eaters, like flies, to pollinate them.  It also keeps deer and rabbits away.  And it makes them undesirable as a cut flower.

This flower is available in two colors - this orange and a yellow.

We got this bulb from Mrs. Wells in the 1980s, and it has multiplied so that when we sold the farm we were able to transplant some.  The bulb is fairly expensive, but we are considering getting some yellow ones, since we have never seen them in a garden.  These get planted, like daffodils and tulips, in the fall.

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There are still lots of violets.

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The lungwort is blooming.   The blooms are pink and blue on the same stem!  The plant is pulmonaria.  I have read that it is named because the spotted leaves resemble diseased lungs.  And it is used for respiratory conditions.

"People take lungwort to treat breathing conditions, stomach and intestinal ailments, and kidney and urinary tract problems. Lungwort is also used in cough medicines, to relieve fluid retention, and to treat lung diseases such as tuberculosis."  WebMD

On April 19 we went for a drive to see what was blooming.  The forsythia is beautiful this year.  Coltsfoot has started and we were delighted to find bloodroot on Lower Ravine Road.

Is this hyacinth near the driveway lying down because of its weight or has a dog (who shall be nameless) trod here?

Mushrooms have started.

This last picture is a similar view to the one at the top of the page.  We are enjoying all the tulips and the variety of daffodils.  

The lilacs are budding, and they will bloom in May.  Alliums are poking up, and one allium has begun developing its flower head.  The rhododendron buds are plumping up.  Hostas and peonies are appearing.  The bleeding heart has buds, and the monkshood has a strong start.  The late tulips are beginning to show color.  There is always something to look forward to in a garden.

2021 Garden Pics

March

To see 2020 garden pics:

Second half of September

September 1st half.

Second half of August

First half of August.

2nd half of July.

First half of July garden.

Garden at the End of June

And the first half of June is here.

You can see the end of May, 2020, here.

Here is the first week of May

Daffodils 2020

The middle of April is here.

First week of April.

March Flowers 2021

2021

March Flowers - finally - we were getting desperate!

This has been a long winter - with Covid 19 limiting our social access, 

and with the weather limiting our outdoor experiences, it has been a long winter. . . 

The first flowers to appear are the snowdrops.

Snowdrops are followed by crocus.

The rabbits have clearly been enjoying these.  They ate the tops of the leaves that emerge before the buds.

Speaking of rabbits, they enjoyed their own personal tulip salad bar.  They ate the growing tops of almost every tulip in the garden.

We are pretty sure it's rabbits - they left some poop when they ate the crocus tops.   Deer like tulips, too, but they usually eat one here and there.  This garden had been almost all eaten.

D immediately went to buy fencing to enclose the gardens that had edibles.

One garden fenced and time for a well deserved break!

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Gwendolyn sent a lovely picture of her white and lavender violets, so I had to wander out to see if we had any.  It is early for us, but I was delighted to find:

These lavender and white crocus were planted by previous owners.  

"Some flies are bee mimics. They can be distinguished from bees by their single pair of wings, and their notably bulging eyes and short antennae. Flies do not actively collect pollen, and lack pollen collecting hairs. They will visit flowers to drink nectar, though, and may thus act as pollinators. While some plant species have evolved to rely on flies for pollination, most plants are better pollinated by bees." https://energy.wisc.edu/bee-guide/WI-Spring-Bee-Guide.pdf

We think this is not a bee.

We keep hoping for early daffodils, but this is all we have on March 21.

Some of the daffodil heads are up.  The brownish plant on the bottom right (around 4 o'clock) is fritillaria, crown imperial.  

March sky is always interesting.

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And the last bit of good news for March, 2021, is we have a daffodil blooming!

YAY!!!!

And for April Fools Day, tomorrow,

we are expecting 4-6 inches of snow!

To see 2020 garden pics:

Second half of September

September 1st half.

Second half of August

First half of August.

2nd half of July.

First half of July garden.

Garden at the End of June

And the first half of June is here.

You can see the end of May, 2020, here.

Here is the first week of May

Daffodils 2020

The middle of April is here.

First week of April.