my garden thus far...

If I were better organized, I would have pictures of the spring bulbs. This was a good year for them. But I don't. And I would have captured lots of plants whose beauty I looked at each day, separate and in the context of the garden, in the context of mostly excellent weather. But gardens are collections of living things, not artificial, but like us, plants have good days and not so good days. Watching a garden is like listening to live music. You are either in the moment are you are thinking what it would sound like on a recording. By in the moment, I mean in the time of the music, subject to its rhythym, timing, sound. In a second, those notes are gone. Same in the garden.

But from time to time, I have taken pictures this year:

APRIL 25 2006



This is a picture (above) I took in the morning. This is just past most of the bulbs although I see a couple of tulips still hanging in, and the lilac bushes, two lavendar and one white, are still in full bloom. Mostly, this a transition moment, where the flat, deadness of the winter beds are being replaced by perennials, here chives, the beginnings of coreopsis, lots of stachys byzantium (lamb's ear), and columbine. In the shade garden, ferns and hostas are starting to stir.

MAY 25, 2006



Exactly one month later. It had just quit raining. The hostas are now up. The chives are blooming. The Japanese Anemones are starting to make their presence known.



This is a ground level shot from the front porch. The irises are still blooming, and you see Gertrude Jekyl DAE roses blooming in the foreground. The purple columbine and chives are the main bloomers.



Here's an old fashioned columbine that I planted three or four years ago in a corner of the garden. It has done well in the past, and frankly, I had forgotten about it. This is towards the end of its blooming. Gosh, it was tall, almost as tall as me. You can see the cranesbill blooming on the left. The peonys behind it had not started blooming yet. I didn't get pictures of them or most of the roses.




Here's two closer looks at different angles of the shade garden which is quite different from the perennial borders.