Each Spring Day

Since settling back into our home, each April day seems like a celebration of light and color, smiles and exploration, growth and rebirth.  

Growing up in New Jersey, every May my mom's bearded iris, flags as she called them, would bloom in an elaborate show of color.   This property came with one loan iris bulb.  Why I haven't planted more, one can only wonder.  I think perhaps it is because I forget how glorious its blooming is -- it lasts so short a time in a climate where flowers bloom year 'round.  But every year, one day, my iris shocks me with its vibrant violet and gold.  Today was that day.  There are multiple stalks this year and each has numerous buds so I should be beholding this glory for a week or so at least.

I decided to put a row cover on the lower bed with all my tiny new pea, lettuce, mache, kohlrabi, sweet pea, and arugula sprouts -- I want to keep the birds from enjoying a fresh salad on my tab!  Gregorie said there was now a ghost in the garden and ran away in mock terror.  Alex and Traveler went exploring the lower hillside.  And she learned that coming up is sometimes not as easy as going down!





The tomato bed has been filled with tomato seedlings and the stakes to support their impending greatness have been placed!  We'll run twine along the stakes, essentially sandwiching the vines between the strings, keeping them flat and vertical.

Perhaps the "tomato bed" should be called the "yarrow bed" -- the stuff is out of control!
Gregg picked up some new lavender plants which together with the yarrow will make a border on the OUTSIDE of the bed.  Just on the inside, in front of the tomatoes, along a drip line, I'll plant carrots (tomorrow hopefully -- let's see, that will give me carrots for, say, Halloween??). 
These are little pepper seedlings in a ring in front of the pea/bean teepees.  They are not very picturesque, yet, but I wanted a "before" shot of them!
Here is my perennial borage -- the stuff grows like a weed in my lower beds!  Love it!
Rainbow chard that was planted last year.
And an oak leaf hydrangea about to bloom!