Gorgeousness

General front yard gorgeousness today.











Azaleas in the front drive...hot pink, yesss!

I've discovered this rhody's color now...pretty nice!

These tulips all dropped their heads & revealed lovely white centers.

An inspiring dragonfly was in the lawn this morning. I love the things that make me stop and watch for long periods. This one seemed to be struggling to fly and I resisted interferring. I checked on him this afternoon and he is dead. A good meal for some lucky bird.

The shape of things today.

A look at the evolving garden beds.





The moon bed now holds five Lavenders! It's going to be heavenly in a few years. Bridal wreath spirea, crocosmia diablo and two verbena bonariensis are along for the ride.



Our new dwarf Alberta Spruce tree! We have three planted in the back yard, the repetition does unify the space visually, which is a marked improvement.



The delightful Pink Dogwood.

Red Azalea about to start blooming.

Cottoneaster is now planted in the front yard along the side walk.

My favorite Euphorbia.

Hot pink Saxafraga.

The last of the orange tulips.


Late blooming miniature pink tulips.

Red flowering current tree found it's home near the old mill stone.

Leafing out update on the honeycomb buddlija.

The elegant Iris, cloaked in a shroud for now.

A newly placed bird bath, I look forward to seeing it visited.

A new rose branch...it's red to avoid being burned by the sun.

A light green sempervivum looks yummy next to the amber rock. Jon's pick from Betty's roadside plant sale this past weekend.

My playground. It just screams mud pies & dandilion soup to me in a 5 year old voice.

I like how nature does what it likes...the wildness that the garden gives back for my effort is so much better than oil paint or ink.

This good mess of pacific coast iris foliage is the new home of a green frog!

Beginnings of a humble native garden.

I came across another road-side plant sale today! Put on by a group of people who rescue pacific northwest native plantings from developing land. I am thrilled to be incorporating these into my scape, because they bring birds to the yard which keep the bugs and plant damage in balance. I aim to have a balanced garden that doesn't need pesticides, and native plantings are the way to create such an ecosystem.

I was able to get six plants in the ground before it starting pouring rain.

The list of new natives, and a couple more that aren't:
Evergreen Huckleberry trees (4)
Indian Plum tree
Salal groundcover (3)
Ocean Spray shrub
Mock Orange shrub
Italian Prune tree
Euphorbia Amygdaloides (3)
Purple Lilac shrubs (2)
Vine Maple tree
Kinicinick ground cover
Cottoneaster groundcover/shrub
Red Flowering Current trees (2)
Crocosmia Diablo
Sedum groundcover
Red Huckleberry tree
Pacific Dogwood tree

End of April with new plantings

Whoa, where did this come from! I left the garden for a few days and it went into full glorious bloom.

Ajuga Reptans. Love these electric flower spikes and bronze foliage.

Mini pink tulips just bloomed.

The Fireglow Euphorbia has blooms on, I haven't seen these before now, a photo without sunlight will show them off better.

These tulips just keep opening...amazing.

Some new planted sedum from the roadside sale last weekend.

Ajuga is planted along the entire front of this bed now...in part sun & shade.

A clematis vine! I pulled this sprig out of a crack in the concrete at our old house, it came up with the root attached so I put it here. I forgot about it all winter but it seems to be doing great.

Sweet Woodruff planted in the shade behind the lacecap hydrangea.

A newly planted sword fern and Sweet woodruff ground cover. It would be great if this took over & did some weed control next to this fence.

Marmalade Heuchera Coral Bells in their new home in front of bleeding hearts.

Newly planted Mexican feather grass...and the lavender has survived the winter.

Autumn Joy stonecrop will get 2-3 feet tall and 2 feet wide. Planted in front of the peonies, iris, perovskia and grasses.

The other autumn joy stonecrop from the plant sale, across the path from her sister, and nestled here on the sunny side of the flowering pear tree. The daffodils finished their show this week.

This rose sprouted from seed, I believe. I found it growing under an old rose in my garden. It looks to be thriving in it's new spot.

An interesting sedum from the plant sale...love the copper and pink coloring.

Another new sedum planting. Can't have too many of these.

A hot orange Oriental Poppy plant just found it's way into the herb garden.

Three garlic plants, a good companion to roses, as pests will avoid the area & miss out on lucious apricot blooms.

Burgandy Heuchera Coral Bells found it's new home here in front of the rush.

Looking mighty perky.

The Daphne Odora cutting has been hardening off outside this week. I think it might actually make it. The other two cuttings bit the dust pretty hard.

The view entering the back garden from around the side of the house.

A Fairey Cathedral if I ever saw one.

The Sweet woodruff in the front yard, getting the last kiss of sun today.

The peonies are growing well amongst the allium.

The north path...I love this area, so much potential.

I had my way with this Iberis...gunning for more blooms and a pretty mounded shape.

This bulb has cracked the earth wide open. I wonder what it is?

The tulips are huge...they may be done with this show very soon.

This one got so tired it had to rest it's head on the rock. The saxifraga sure is doing cool things with it's flower stems.

Looks like 8 and 1/2 months...ready to pop.

A better look at the Euphorbia in bloom. I like.

I found this tulip decapitated. I bet I fed a cutworm a nice dinner last night.

Is this beautiful to anyone besides me? I'm in love with my compost heap...and I just added silver twigs of Russian Sage and swirly branches of Euphorbia. The Diablo Ninebark on the right is looking dark and lucious too!