by Bonsai 150 Replies latest jw friends
our garden has quite a lot of butterflies and birds. I saw a bullfinch this morning. We had a fox come by the in the day the dog was asleep and didn't notice it. slow worms and frogs and toads. we have blackberry apples plum gooseberry grapes and cherries. I made some wine one year from the blackberries and another year from the grapes. It was drinkable.
I lost interest in the garden and it is now more natural.
Brrr! It was in the 30s this morning while it was 75° last week. What crazy weather.
My tulips have come up but not bloomed yet. Hopefully it will warm up soon and I'll have colorful tulips in my front yard.
We have a pear tree that draws bees and beautiful butterflies in the summer.
I think I'm going to plant some butterfly bushes soon, too.
After week of traveling, we decided to take care the garden. I fertilized it and put weed prevent down, and went to New York and later to California. Today, it was garden time, pretreated lawn was mowed for the first time this season. I reseeded the law and fix barren patches, because it will rain tomorrow. The winter assessment shows that only one kalmia laurel and one rhodo are gone. First rhodos are blooming, so are my spring camellia. I have one with so many flowers that branches are bending, Many tulips and daffodils are blooming, while hyacinths, snowdrops and crocus had bloomed out. Spring in full mode. Cool night, breeze, and a lot of sunshine.
Kaik, those pics are very beautiful. Thank you for sharing them with us.
My old, dead Echinacea and Monarda plants are still standing even after the ice storm. I leave them so the birds have seeds throughout the winter and early spring. I will likely cut them off in May, remove the seed heads, cutting up the stalks in small pieces and putting them to the beds. They assist with mulching the soil and returning nutrients to it (for free!).
In Ontario, Canada, we normally start cutting the grass around the middle of May.
I woke up to at least an inch or more of snow this morning so I'll have to get out there shortly to shovel. This is spring in Canada ... LOL!
The spring will peak at my area in the middle of April when azaleas and rhodos bloom. Camellias are generally the first shrubs to bloom because they develop buds in the fall and opens around the spring equinox regardless of frost due specific amount of sunlight. My biggest enemy are squirrels who pics the buds and leave me with nothing. The rhodo pictured above is PJM variety and is the first to bloom together with the forsythia. The forsythia was planted by previous owner, and I do not care much about them. Last year I lost half dozen gardenias because of the late frost. They were planted seven years ago, survived blizzard, but sudden freeze in April killed them. This year it seems that only mountain laurel and one rhodo is write off, but I have to wait for month to see about the rest. My daphne started to bloom again, but it lost a lot of leaves in the blizzard so it does not look too pretty. I fertilized it, so it should leave out shortly.
We had here in USA warm December, and real winter did not arrive until middle of January. I had only one snow storm and March was seasonally warm/cold. However, April is cold and I think there will be a lot of damage on plants if we do not get warm. It is already warmer in the Czech Republic than here in my part of USA.
I have bunch of camellias. Three of them were ordered from camellia society and I think they are East Asia origin (Korea or Japan). I have one camellia that the origin is from Turkey/Iran and it is deep red. I will take picture shot of it over the weekend. I never get the chance to enjoy camellia much because squirrels love to eat the buds. I usually have only a few left on top of the shrub. So far, I have not lost camellia and I also had one transplanted around the yard. The hardest shrub to grow is gardenia, and I will not replace them anymore. I had entire row of them for years, but last year I lost every shrub.
Last year I planted lilac so I am curious on the flowers and fragrance. I have also anise tree, but it never bloomed for me. My ideal garden would be Provence French with gardenia, lavender, hydrangea, but the climate is not the same. I also have a lot of clematis, but they do not grow as thick as they do in the Czech Republic. My grandmother had entire courtyard of her farmhouse covered with clematis, but I am happy that my plant climbs two to three feet.
