Spring Inventory April 11, 2010 - Back Yard

Yesterday I walked around the yard with camera in hand to record early spring activities. The first three photos are wide shots of the back yard. Despite having snow on the ground three weeks ago, plants are growing all over the place. It's too early to plant tender new plants. That's okay. I still need time to do spring clean up. Please note the height of the grass in these photos. Have you guessed that the lawnmower we bought last fall is still in the box? Maybe today (she says optimistically).

You can poke the photos to see them larger. I should have used a larger font in the labels in many of the photos.

The lily garden is thick with leaves, but some lilies are already poking through them. I'm hoping the leaves were thick enough to protect the delicate lily bulbs from our few deep freezes last winter. If all goes well, a lovely vine with orange flowers (whose name escapes me) will come back to cover the trellis.

Last fall I planted some primroses bought at half price closeout. It looks as if about half of them survived the winter and are already blooming. I want to get more and plant them earlier this year so they'll have a better survival rate. I love the bright blooms this early!

The next shot was taken behind the tree in the photo above. It was cleared last year with Roundup but nothing was planted. My hope was that the wild violets would come back as a natural ground cover. They did! I'll be planting other perennials in the area and let the violets fill in between. I'm surprised to see so many white violets and some with purple & white blossoms. In previous years they were mainly purple. I wonder if the chemicals in the Roundup had anything to do with this, although the same thing is taking place in areas that weren't sprayed. The Japanese maple tree is going into its third summer looking very healthy. Lots of leaves unfurling.

Too bad I can't say the same about the dogwoods that were planted at the same time. The white dogwood (foreground) is dead. The pink one has leaves but will not be blooming this year. Between them can be seen mounds of coral bells leafing out. Most of them were purchased at the Powell Gardens plant sale last spring. I'm thinking about putting in a Japanese Rose (Kerria japonica 'Pleniflora') when the dogwood comes out.

There is no photo, but I'm sorry to report that all three of the Encore azaleas are dead. Found out from the Powel Gardens blog that only one variety -- Amethyst -- is hardy enough for Zone 6. You'd think the numbskull at the local nursery would have known that. Another nursery gets their Encore azaleas from a nursery farther north than we are; I asked them to order 3 more for me.

Along the north fence (looking toward the front yard), the daylilies from Lilywood Farms are poking through their covering of fall leaves. The long rows of green are surprise lilies (aka naked ladies) that were here when we bought the place. Apparently they plan to be here forever. All efforts to dig them up have fallen far short of goal! The foliage will yellow and dry in several weeks, then in August there will appear lovely pink lilies, one bloom per stalk -- naked without any foliage. I'm rationalizing that they make a nice border for the long bed of daylilies.The area by the "kissing tree" (a double pin oak) shows the hellabores leafing out. The witch hazel that was presumed dead yet put out a couple of leaves last fall again appears to be dead. The other two have leaves already. Always the optimist, I'll leave it in the ground for a while and see what happens. None of the ferns are showing green yet.

The Bradford pear has me a bit concerned. Instead of being solid white with flowers (as are the other Bradford pears around town), ours put out leaves with only a few flowers. I'm wondering if all of the spraying I did to kill off the invasive vines on the ground didn't mess with the tree. The container says it won't cause harm if not directly applied, yet so far as I know, this is the only difference between our tree and the others. We'll see what happens next year.

The last photo from the back yard is of the wild violets growing between the edge stones in the little plots beside the shed. Aren't they lovely? I don't understand why some people treat them as weeds. Look at the pansies! They were planted last fall and came back with colors flying high.

This is a long post. I'll report on the front and side yards in the next one.