Spring Flowers

Spring in the northwest might be rainy but it is also when the most beautiful flowers bloom.

I don't know their names

But the Azaleas are all gorgeous

So are the Lilacs. This is the first year they have bloomed for us,

we didn't know this bush was here.

There is a plethora of Blue Bells and yesterday the first Iris popped open.

For Mothers Day I had store bought flowers on the table but they are pretty too

And also on Mothers Day, I bought a dozen Pheasant eggs, I put 6 under a hen and 6 in the incubator with 8 chicken eggs. When they are big enough I'll release them into the wild.

Front Yard plants

I took this photo yesterday.

All the azaleas have finished blooming and after Googling for the info, I discovered it is prime time to trim the bushes for optimal growth next year and to make them look nice again. They were really gangly looking.

 

I didn't have my hand clippers so I used the loppers to start whacking the branches off. I was ruthless.

Afterward, I wrapped a new soaker hose around the bottoms of them and left it on for a few hours. This is the first time I've watered them.

 

Our porch rockers are much more noticeable now.

 

We put the log behind the bushes so it can be seen but its not the main focus of the bed.

 

The Rhody beside the steps really got whacked, it's just sticks now. I still need to deadhead the remaining plants.

 

The hanging baskets are looking awesome but I need to move each basket toward the centers of the areas by at least 6 inches, they are all crammed into the pillars.

 

Out in the rest of the yard there are many more Rhodys and Azaleas, I have a couple of each that I'd like to move and a couple huge ones to really start whacking on. One is tall and skinny so we were thinking about making it a Rhody tree. I will start trimming on those soon, before it's too late.

Porch Flower Baskets

We've got a beautiful long front porch across the entire house with white railings and columns. I've been working on getting flower baskets growing so they can be hung and enjoyed all summer. Today I got the hooks installed and hung the baskets only to discover that they each need a piece of chain to make them hang low enough that they can be seen and watered easily.

 

 

This is what it looked like the first time I was ever here. October, pouring rain. No garden work for 2 years, just mowing once in a while and they didn't care where the grass clippings went.

 

This is the porch earlier the other day, I had placed the baskets approximately where I would be hanging them.

 

This is one of them. First I had just flowers in it but it had more room so I added Sweet Potato Vine. That should really help it fill out well.

 

Linda gave me two baskets on April 8th, the 9th anniversary of my twin brothers death. They are beautiful baskets.

 

And here they are hung. I have one rusty old chain but its not going to work for all of them so I'll be stopping at Lowes this evening for10 chains that are 8-10 inches long. A couple of the baskets have longer chains or hooks on them already and I'd like all the bottoms of the baskets to be the same height.

 

 

 

And this is the 2nd of the bushed below the railing to bloom. They are gorgeous! After the flowers are dropped I'll be trimming these back so they are below the level of the rail.