April End of the Month View.

The months are flying by so fast I forgot again about joining in with Helen at The Patient Gardener's Weblog for the end of month view. I joined in taking pictures of my entry garden last September. When looking back at September's post I saw that it really didn't look that much different as it does now. Things were just finishing up for the season and the Japanese Maple's leaves had just barely begun changing, where as now the plants are just getting ready to start blooming. But if you want to see how this same place looked in December click here. Now that's a big difference!

Japanese Maple 'Orido Nishiki' was worth every penny we paid for it. It seemed like an overpriced stick when we planted it about 6 years ago, now it looks like a real tree. The Hydrangeas have grown much larger than I ever expected them to. They are both loaded with buds.

Blooming under the tree are two different types of Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium) neither of which I know the names of. I have a variegated type in other parts of the yard but they seem to bloom much later. This taller purple one reseeds and smells like grapes.

Heuchera 'Crimson Curls' and Astillbe.

Heuchera 'Caramel' on the right and 'Dolce Key Lime Pie' on the left. There are several other Heucheras in this bed as well, and some have just begun blooming. The leaves coming up between them are from Trollius 'Cheddar'. I'm really happy to see it coming up, the yellow flowers smelled like jasmine.

Helen is getting her garden ready for the Malvern meetup which is coming up soon. Many garden bloggers will be meeting for the Malvern Spring gardening show in the UK in May. I wish I was going to be one of them, maybe another year.

March end of month view.

March has just flown by this year. Often March feels like one of those never ending months to me. I think because I've been able to get a head start on a few garden projects it hasn't felt as long as usual. But now the April showers, which will hopefully bring May flowers, have begun a bit early. Our 10 day forecast shows rain for all, but one day. So getting back to finish the projects may not happen as soon as I had hoped.
The end of the month also means it's time to join in with The Patient Gardener's Weblog for the end of month view

Things are really beginning to fill in here now. Something is missing from here, although I doubt anyone besides me would notice. I mentioned last week that our pipe that led to the outside faucet must have frozen during the winter, leading to pouring water inside the garage (no damage luckily). The upside to this was that we moved the faucet to a new place. It used to be on the wall behind the plants, leading to many broken plants and bad words as I would unroll the hose to water. Now it is located in a much better place on the front of the garage making watering the whole front yard much easier.

This is the Sedge (Carex hachijoensis) 'Evergold' which I decided to plant under the maple tree. It supposed to get 1 foot by 1 foot and is a clump forming grass. I'm waiting for the rest of the Hostas to reappear before I plant the three of them.

Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium) already has buds on some of the plants.

The beautiful variegated leaves of Japanese Maple 'Orido Nishiki' are so nice against the red twigs that the new growth appears on. Oh, I love this tree! I recently read that it is a slow grower, but in our garden it has grown quite fast.

By the end of next month hopefully I'll have those Sedges planted along with rearranging Hostas and Astillbes. There's a possibility there may even be some small buds on the Hydrangeas. I have a Hydrangea in my backyard with tiny buds already. Hopefully the Columbines in this bed will be blooming by then too.

End of month view - January 2010

I started joining in with Helen of The Patient Gardener's Weblog several months ago to share an end of the month view of a part of my garden. It's been a great way to see what changes could be made or things I really like about this bed.
I've noticed a lack of interest going on in this area over the last couple of months. There are several Heucheras around the edges to provide some color and as much as I like them, they don't seem to provide enough for me. I definitely need to add some more evergreen type of plants here.

I'll be getting out soon to cut back the dried Hydrangea flowers since there is lots of new growth coming now. Pine needles have collected at the base of the shrub and even though it looks a little messy, it gives the birds some great shelter. There are always Juncos and Wrens hanging out in there. More and more bulbs are popping up, in another month there will probably be at least some new flowers blooming.

Winter Daphne (Daphne odora) has the most buds I've ever seen on it. My hope is that it will eventually block part of the hose reel behind it.

This Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis) and another actually came up from roots of another one that I moved years ago. This is one of my favorite Spring flowers, I love the drooping pink and white heart shaped blooms.

This view is walking up from the driveway where lots of perennials are beginning to sprout. The Japanese Maple 'Orido Nishiki' has lots of new red leaf buds on the branches. It's difficult to see how red the ends of the branches are, so pretty right now. This tree is definitely something I love about this bed.

I spent time last night working on a plan for what I'd like to do with this bed. One thing I do know I'd like to add is some perennial type of gold or chartreuse colored grass that I think will look nice with the many Hostas that are already there. Maybe some evergreen ferns as well. As usual for me, the planning is almost as much fun as the planting.