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Everything changes so fast this time of year. Last month where the soil was bare , now there are tulips. Where there were bare branches, now there are leaves of every shape and size. There are colorful blooms and singing birds where last month there were only hopes and dreams. Marilyn and I walked our gardens today and took notice of all the changes. Everything was so fresh and new. “Wow, look at this.” she said as we examined our lilac bush. We just planted it last year, it’s only about two feet tall, but it already has large blooms on it. Our Japanese Maple is a real centerpiece of the backyard. It’s deeply cut, delicate looking leaves rival the finest lace. I took a branch in my hand and marveled at its beauty. “It’s so pretty,” Marilyn remarked. She was so right, and only a month ago it was just so many bare branches.
We continued our walk, heading toward the rose garden. The new growth on the rose canes is a reddish color, but will soon turn green. Some very small buds are beginning to form on the tips of each branch. It won’t be too long until we have roses. It seem that the first roses of the year are always larger than the rest of the year. “I can’t wait for them to bloom,” I said to Marilyn. “Me neither!” she replied.
A month ago our Wisteria was nothing but a large empty vine. Now it is quite beautiful with hundreds of foot long blooms dangling from the branches. It smells delicious. The bees must think so too, they are all over it, going from one flower to the next. You can hear their buzzing sounds from many feet away. Our Hydrangeas have really made progress the last two weeks. I think it will be a good year for them. Our Spireas, Red Twig Dogwoods, Blue and Red Altheas, our trees, everything is looking good.
Our Goldfish pond and stream have really come to life the last couple of weeks. We have seen several toads and frogs already. The Goldfish come toward us as we stand near the pond. They are wanting to be fed.
Yes, those hopes and dreams of only a month ago are beginning to come true. The garden is reviving itself. We love to be in our garden, sometimes we feel like we are part of the garden. I think the garden brings us closer together. Closer to nature, to each other, and to the Creator of all this beauty. I am amazed by it all.
“Well, everything is doing great. Are you ready to go inside?” I asked Marilyn after our tour of the yard.
I knew what she was going to say. “Let’s look at everything again,” she said. So we did. We walked the yard again. And hopefully we’ll walk it together a thousand more times. And then a thousand more.
Best Wishes Friends, Rick. See a slideshow of last summers garden CLICK HERE.
About a quarter mile from our home is a very nice wooded area, with two ponds. I enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells of the woods. One day about eight or nine years ago I was driving on the narrow road that passes through the woods when I spotted something in the middle of the road. As I steered around the object I took a look at it. It looked like a large potted plant, right in the middle of the road. I turned my truck around and went back to investigate. I pulled the truck over and got out. Sure enough it was a Wisteria plant in a one gallon pot. It looked good, was in perfect condition. I wondered how it got in the road. I guess it fell out of someone’s truck, or maybe out of the trunk of a car. Who knows where it came from? I picked it up, it had a Home Depot tag on it that said Chinese Wisteria, and if I remember correctly it said $11.89, or around there. I took the plant home and planted it in the back yard. It grew quickly for about five years before it ever bloomed, but now it blooms heavily every year.
Here is a photo of the Wisteria as it is now blooming.
Best Wishes, Rick.
Click here to see more photos.
Each Spring I enjoy seeing the Eastern Redbud trees blooming. They produce many thousands of pinkish-purple flowers along their stems. Redbuds seem to prefer to grow at the edges of the woods, we enjoy seeing hundreds of them along the interstate where the road cuts through the trees. I always wanted one so about three years ago Marilyn bought me one as a surprise gift. It was less than three feet tall and quite frankly did not look like much of a tree.
“I think this would be a good spot for it,” Marilyn said, pointing to a spot about ten feet from our shed. So we started digging, we dug a hole big enough for a large tree, then carefully placed the little Redbud in the hole. We watered it, we mulched it, we stood back and admired our work. It wasn’t very impressive but it was our Redbud. “Do you think it will bloom this year?” asked Marilyn.
“No, but hopefully next year,” I answered. The tree grew quite a bit that summer. I was sure that it would bloom the next Spring. The next Spring came and went, without a bloom. We were disappointed. “Next year will be the year,” we kept telling ourselves.
Well, we were disappointed again. The tree was then about seven feet tall but no blooms that Spring either. “Are you sure this is really a Redbud?” she would sometimes ask. I was beginning to wonder myself.
Now our little Redbud tree is at least eight feet tall and it has dozens of the pinkish-purple flowers that we have been waiting for. “It’s blooming,” Marilyn exclaimed as we were walking through the yard a few days ago. Yes, it’s finally blooming. Our wait was over, we stood there a few minutes just looking at the flowers. They were beautiful. The little tree that we put in the big hole was blooming.
Hopefully next year it will have thousands of blooms, not just dozens. I think it will, but that Redbud has proved me wrong before. But I think it will.
Best Wishes to Everyone, Rick nature-garden.yolasite.com
“Lettuce, radishes, cucumber, zucchini, what other seeds do we need?” Marilyn asked while standing in front of the giant seed display at Walmart. “Oh yeah, we need basil seeds” she said, “and parsley seeds and green bean and squash and …hey can we try watermelon this year?..and later on we’ll buy our tomato and pepper plants and some Miracle-gro and do we have enough tomato cages and….”
She went on and on and on. I figure our quest to save a few dollars on the cost of fresh veggies will cost us about a weeks pay, maybe more. “Hey, slow down. We only have a small vegetable garden,” I reminded her. Even Old McDonald couldn’t have kept up with all the stuff she wanted to grow.
I’ve been around long enough to know that it’s always a good idea to keep the Little Lady happy, so we bought it all. Seeds, sprays, powders, cages, fertilizers, she was putting it all in the shopping cart faster than I could tally it up. Two dollars-five dollars-twelve dollars, I was trying to add it all in my head. Fifty dollars-seventy dollars. When I got to one hundred and four dollars I gave up. My head was starting to hurt.
“Did we forget anything?” Marilyn asked.
“How about the kitchen sink?” I asked.
“Now you’re just being silly,” she said.
I looked in the cart, there were things in there I had never heard of, strange things with strange names. Some kind of Oriental vegetable seeds called Pok Bok Roi or something like that. I don’t know what that means, but translated into English I think it means “something green you probably shouldn’t eat.”
We headed toward the check-out lane, I was glad to be leaving. I was wondering what the damage to our wallet was going to be. “How much do you think all of this will come to?” I asked her. But she wasn’t listening. She had spotted the Rose Care section of the garden area. She headed right for it, I was following close behind.
“We need rose fertilized, and spray for black spot, and insecticide, and……”
She went on and on and on. Eight dollars-fourteen dollars-twenty six dollars.
My head started to hurt again, but she was happy. And that makes me happy.
Rick - Happy Gardening to everyone. Click on - nature-garden.yolasite.com
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