Not much to see yet

The weather continues to confound. Some days I am in hurry-up mode, other days it feels too early to get excited about gardening. I finally started some seedlings inside (late) while we (my SO and I) continue to plod along outside.

As stated earlier, one thing I wanted to do this year is show the progression of changes of the raised bed portion of the yard. I added a reminder to my calendar to take pix every month. Last month's are here. Below are this month's.

Looking SW

Looking NW

Looking NE

Looking SE

Orchard - looking SW

So far, the biggest changes involve moving concrete blocks. The old strawberry bed has been dismantled and those blocks doubled the height of the asparagus bed. The blocks for a smaller bed that last year hosted tomato plants is now the second story of a bed in the orchard where I plan to plant madder.

The redbud trees are still going strong, but other denizens of the yard are coming on. The rusty heron still protects the rhubarb patch. While cleaning out a cupboard, I found several jars of too-old-to-eat vanilla bean rhubarb jam. I may have to repeat that recipe, but share the results in a more timely manner (I can eat only so much of the stuff). There will be the annual May birthday rhubarb pies. AND I plan to mordant wool yarn with the rhubarb leaves. Fun stuff!

This Old Fashioned Bleeding Heart is not only big and beautiful, volunteers are starting to pop up here and there around the yard.

This northside bed fills up with hostas, coral bells, iris, and rudbeckia. Somewhere along the line, the landscape timbers got relocated. I need to figure out a way to redefine the edge, to keep the grass out.

After giving the 'Limelight' hydrangea a severe pruning, I was a bit nervous about its survival. It is starting to leaf out, though, so now I am more excited than nervous, to see how it turns out.

The 'Betty Corning' clematis continues to be a problem of excess. This year we are trying an open-ended approach to the trellis, hoping the prevailing winds from the NW keep it somewhat corralled, at least better than previous years.

With the removal of the picket fence around the raised beds and a judicious pruning of the nearby redbud tree, the view from the deck has opened up quite a lot. I didn't want to prune the redbuds yet, but yesterday was take-crap-to-the-compost-site day. Rather than start a new pile of trimmings so early, I whacked a few limbs here and there, despite the trees still being in their glory.

2016 view from the deck

2017 view from the deck

Otherwise, there has been much weeding going on, in an effort to uncover lost plants. Most of the time I mark their location in one manner or another, which is extremely helpful when it is difficult to tell the newly emerging plant from the weeds. There are still a few rabbits around, eager to wreak havoc, but I have not seen the local woodchuck, at least not in my yard, this year. Fingers crossed!