Spring Gardening

Wayne digging holes for trees from Maryland DNR

Some of our first bulbs to come up from fall planting.

 Although I had realized I had been very lax in writing my blog I hadn't realized that I hadn't written anything about gardening this spring.  Kind of funny when I think about the amount of time and work we have been putting into changing our yard and the amount of fun we have had watching all of our plants come up and come to life.

We ordered 50 trees from Maryland Department of Natural Resources  and they sent us a few extra so we ended up planting 55 trees and giving 3 to our neighbor.  We ordered half redbuds and half black locust.  These trees were in better shape and bigger than the ones we had gotten from the National Arbor Society in the fall.  I had dug over half of the holes before the trees arrived and in 2 days we dug the rest of the holes and planted all 55 trees.  So far they are doing pretty well although I am going to have to spray for bugs since they think the trees taste yummy.


As winter was ending and spring neared we got our first colorful visitors with the crocus starting off the show.  I was so excited I had to text Wayne to let him know we had our first flower open.

Baby Iris and Crocus, so cute and very welcome color.

More baby Iris, less than 6 inches tall.

More bulbs coming up and blooming.

A real treat for me was when the baby Iris started showing up with the crocus,  These tiny wonders were a real treat so early in the year.

We planted over 1000 bulbs in the fall and it was really exciting to see them starting to come up and we were out many days looking to see what had changed and who was blooming.

Daffodils in bloom.

Our first lilacs in bloom.
I was really excited when my two Korean Lilacs bloomed this spring,  I have always loved lilacs since we used to visit my Grandmother Throne and she had huge lilac bushes in bloom, the smell was heavenly.  Some of my other bushes planted in the fall were lilacs but they did not bloom this spring.

Pretty Double Daffodil.

Seeds from Grandma's Hollyhocks a few generations later.

As we have spent all of this time planning and planting our garden I have thought a lot about the females in my family who were gardeners and how proud they would be of me.  I have especially thought of my Mom and my Grandma Throne.  My Mom sent me 3 boxes of plants from Iowa including tulips, iris, seeds from my Grandma's hollyhocks and cuttings from her peonies.  I like that these plants will be in my garden where they can remind me of her.  The lilacs and redbuds that we planted will also remind me of my Grandmother since she loved them as well.

Wayne's Anniversary Present to me, Roses and Daylilies.

Not too bad for $5 rose bushes, cheaper than cut roses and last longer, too.

First Iowa Iris to bloom (the day after our anniversary)

Second Iowa Iris to bloom.

Some of the newest additions to our yard are these roses and daylilies that I bought on or wedding anniversary at Lowe's, this grouping of plants cost $15.  I LOVE clearance and sale plants at Lowes.  I told Wayne he was very smart to buy me roses that would come back year after year, much better than ones that will die in a week or so.







































I will leave you with these beautiful Iris in bloom,  they bloomed the 2 days after our anniversary,  I really like that Iris (one of my favorite flowers) bloom around our anniversary here in Maryland.  And these came all of the way from Iowa to grace us with their beauty.  If you like Iris come back for my next post which will have Iris coming into our home decor.