Sprouts!

May 07, 2010 10:55 AM Filed in: Day To Day
Strawberry
It's going to be a hot one out there today, especially for it being only early May. They're calling for a high of 88F, about 31C for my overseas friends. I'm guessing that has to be at least 15 degrees or so above normal. *whew* So instead of mowing the lawn today (which is definitely due) I decided to just do a good soaking of all the new flowers sprouting up around the yard and call it a day.
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Major slacking will ensue.

The nice thing about doing the watering rounds is it gives me a chance to check up on everything. I've done a lot of planting this spring, a lot, and most of it has been seeds. Last spring and summer I planted a lot of fruit trees and young ground cover plants from the nursery, not to mention a handful of other decorative plants. It was a Let's Get Started year. This spring I'm filling in the gaps and starting a couple of new mounds of stuff in different parts of the yard, and it's almost all flower seeds.

I don't have any 2010 pictures to show you yet. I'm holding off on the next big photo shoot until probably early June when I finish painting the front and back porches. That will really change the way the whole house and yard look, plus those extra few weeks will give all these sprouting plants a chance to fill out and start making their own contributions to the scenery. It's going to look really nice around here this summer.

In three different areas around the yard I've planted flower beds that are a mixture of sunflowers, red salvia, hollyhocks, california poppies, lavender, pinks, lambs ear, cosmos, bachelor buttons, foxglove, and blue fescue grass. There's a small patch of moss rose too, and a handful of spots where I planted some cardinal vines. I'd really like to see the vines come right up the porch posts and spread out. Their red blooms are supposed to be humming bird favorites, and I'm hoping those little dudes all come back this year. My first summer it was a regular hummingbird par-tay around here, but last summer with all that
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construction going on they pretty much flew the coop. All these new flower beds are my way of making amends to them and to the bees and to the butterflies too, not to mention all the other little critters out there. And it's all popping up now and beginning to be visible from a distance. By that first week of June or so some of them should show up in the pictures, and maybe you'll even see a bloom or two.

So besides all the new flower beds, everything I planted last year is looking vibrant and healthy this spring, well, except for two of my grape plants. I planted six in my arbor, but the merlot vine and one of the concord vines look pretty much like dead sticks right now. I'm going to wait though, go ahead and leave them in the ground most of the summer. If they're really goners I'll replace them in the fall, but so far the other four vines look pretty happy. Maybe these two are just late bloomers. We'll see. My apple and pear trees are looking good (three very small red apples just beginning to grow now,) and the blue spruce too! And the maples and oaks and my one little pecan tree all are putting on lots of new spring growth. It's good to see! And it even looks as if I might get a few
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quarts of strawberries this spring out of the front yard plants.
Mmmm..... Happy

All in all spring is off to a pretty good start around here. No complaints! Hope it's the same for all of you.    JB