catnip and coffee

I’ve finally taken a photo of my namesake. (Or am I its namesake? Or does it work both ways? I could Google it but I don’t really care.)

Anyway, The catnip is up and looking quite healthy and lovely:

George doesn’t get particularly excited about the catnip until it’s dried. He’s so weird.

Yeah, whatever George, you are too.

I also took new photo of my forsythia which is FINALLY blooming. (I will be sure to back up all of my images this time.)

Isn’t it pretty! It’s just so freaking cheerful!

I couldn’t decide which image I liked best so here’s another view:

Now click on it the image to make it bigger and then look in the upper left corner. Do you see something? That’s the boy’s tree house. (The tree house we have not yet let him go up into yet. I’m paranoid, what can I say, he’s only five, and it’s really high up.)

Back to the photo. I didn’t know when I snapped the picture that the tree house would be visible but now that I see I just like how it gives some secret dimension to it, like an I Spy book or a Bev Doolittle painting. Or am I just weird too? (Don’t answer that!!)

Okay. Here’s a gratuitous pansy shot:

I don’t usually spend much money on annuals, but I was seriously pining for some color in my front yard last week. Spring in New England is tough on a blogger - I look at all these other blogs from all over the country that have had Full! Blooming! Gardens! for weeks now. It’s not freaking fair! So my pansies made me happy. Look at it, don’t you just want to slurp that big refreshing drop of water right off it?! No? Really? hmm, nevermind….

Moving on. Now that we’ve had some nice rain over the last few days I also have a small leaf purple rhododendron in full bloom. I just love this bush tree. Someone knew what they were doing when they picked out this one. It’s about seven feet tall, I can see it out my front picture window, and it’s just gorgeous. The blossoms are so delicate and smell glorious. Thanks previous homeowners!

Before I moved here, I’d never seen a Rhododendron quite like it. It’s not a typical one, that has the larger leaves and big flowers, nor is it quite an azalea with the tiny leaves. It’s weird. Like me George.

I have hens and chicks, or at least the hens! I hope to have the chicks late summer or next year.

No, I’m not a farmer, and they’re not animals. They’re plants, and they survived the winter! Yay!

This is a hen:

isn’t it pretty!? The chicks are the offspring they’ll have as they start to spread. If the hens bloom this year, and I hope so, the main plant may die off but the babies will bloom sometime in the next few years. After they’re established I should get some blooms every year. I just planted these last spring, out of my mother’s garden.

It was an experiment in this spot - that’s why I’m excited they survived the winter. I put the hen and chicks along with some stonecrop and 2 kinds of sedum (all succulents) down by the mailbox. If the rest of my property feels like a rainforest, the area near the road feels like a desert. Lots of sun, no shade, and tons of sand from the winter storms have built up to create an inhospitable environment. So I put in desert plants of course! I was afraid they didn’t make it, but on Saturday I raked away a couple inches of leaves from last fall (left there to protect them) and at least an inch or more of new sand from this winter, and there they were! Now I can invest in some more succulents knowing I’m not wasting my money.

I spent a couple hours yesterday transplanting the lilies that were hidden behind the forsythia. Finally! I moved those to the treeline near the road as well. They’ll get the sun they want but shouldn’t get burned up being near the trees. They never bloomed when they were in the back woods - of course they never got any sun - so I have no idea what color they’ll be. I have many different daylilies here, mostly variegated orange/maroon and some yellow. I don’t think I’ve seen a plain orange one yet. I’m very curious and I’ll be sure to post pictures as soon as they bloom. Cause you’re just dying to find out too, right, right? hello?

Anyway.

This is my rock wall:

This is my rock wall sliding down a hill. <sigh>

These are very heavy rocks. I tried to lift one and well, I’m a strong woman, but forget it.

My choices are to convince dh to rebuild it for me, uh huh, or to use what’s there as the base and get more rocks to build up. I think I’m gonna have to go with option 2.

Oh, see the little bit of green in the photo. That’s not moss. That’s the rest of my daylilies! I love them here amongst the rocks!

Overheard while the boy was playing legos yesterday: “I’m gonna make something totally freaking awesome!”

Yes, apparently I am raising him as if we’re still living in Maine. In the 80’s. heh. Right on.

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Anyway, the snow has finally melted enough that I was able to go out in the yard today. I managed to get a bit of raking done, cleaned up the veggie garden area, and took a walk around the perimeter to see what’s popping up. It was fantastic to get out and breathe in some fresh air! Okay, it’s only 50, but I’ll take what I can get.

I was so very happy to see the day lilies are up about an inch, and are all over the place. I also have some tulip tops peeking out under the front picture window. I transplanted them from the backyard last spring but I was too late for them to bloom. Someone at one time had a flower garden smack dab in the middle of the lawn and that clump was the last of it. I have no idea what color they’ll be - I can’t wait to see! There are a few violets showing their leaves, but no flowers yet. I have thousands of violets that have spread across the entire lawn but they are the thickest right at the edge of the woods. Really they’ve become weeds, but they’re so pretty I don’t mind much! DH minds - they mess up the possibility of perfect grass

The forsythia have just the bittiest of buds. For me, the forsythia blooming is the first sign of real spring. It’s always the first thing in my yard to have lots and lots of color and it covers up all the winter brownness of the woods. I had a great photo of them in full yellow happiness from last year - and of course that’s the image I wanted to get off my old laptop to post here. No such luck. I’ll just have to wait for new blooms and take the photos over!

No sign of the hostas yet, but they are are all in the spots where the snow hasn’t melted, in the shade of course. I hope we don’t have another storm, I have a plant swap coming up at the end of the month with some friends and I’d like to take some with me. The previous house owners never split any of the hostas so they are terribly overgrown. I did some splitting and moving and trading last spring, but there is sooo much more to do.

This week my goals are to do a bunch more raking and work on my rock wall - it’s sliding down a hill! I also need to dig up the lilies that somehow ended up behind the forsythia in the woods, (who does something like that??) I meant to last spring but never got to it. Anyone want to come over and do a little yard work?? There’s plenty to go around!

I was outside on Sunday for a bit between rainstorms, and I caught it. That first whiff of spring. If you live in the frozen tundra New England like I do you know what I’m talking about. It won’t be back for a while, with two feet of snow still on the ground, but that whiff is hope giving.

 So what did I do? I started some seeds of course! Only flowers for now, (I started my veggies too early last year and paid the price.) and I’m trying some new ones this year: yellow coreopsis, pink dianthus, mixed convoluvus, orangy gazania, bright red marigolds, starry blue laurentia. I can’t wait to see how they turn out! Or if they even sprout! Of course, I also started some basics, cosmos, pansies, coleus, and daisies, some more basil since I killed the last batch and spearmint since it likes any soil. Oh, and the morning glories. Did you know you have to nick the hard shell and soak them overnight? Huh. Well, neither did I, but now I know why they didn’t come up last year - I didn’t read the freaking directions.

You can now imagine what my house looks like: little pots of dirt taking up every flat surface. I used up all the plastic food containers I saved all winter, plus a couple mini greenhouse flats. Not to mention my usual houseplants and wintered over herbs. Yikes. Someday I’ll have a gardening station with a growlight in the basement….