work outside

I've been pulling dandelions and purple dead nettle. Think am starting to finally get ahead of the creeping jenny- the patch didn't take nearly as long to clear out this year as the last time I tackled it, and only three more pieces were showing green when I walked by it again today (pausing at once to tease those out of the ground). Cleared vinca off the smaller sideyard today, will get to the rest of it on the upper area around the lilac bush soon. 

Peonies and turtlehead are up, black-and-blue salvia showing lots of leaves, joe pye just starting to peek above the ground.

The week before when I thinned the beets, I tucked some of them back into the ground. Didn't expect a high survival rate, but actually most of them are still alive and have perked up again! So I tried the same with the carrots. The bed is full of weeds and unevenly spaced carrot seedlings, crowded here and there.

I tidied it up and all the pulled carrots that actually had some roots, put them back into the ground in blank spots, using the blade of a butter knife and sliding them into the gap, then pressing tight around. Except- I think a bunch of these weren't carrots after all, but grass of some kind? Did I just save a bunch of grass bits in neat little rows. They don't have the pretty ferny leaves. Will keep an eye on them and yank out again if I've made a mistake.

At least it looks more orderly now.

Have started eating tatsoi- there's not enough of it! and lovage, which is thick and lovely. And today had some sculpit sauteed in butter with rice and carrots. There's actually only one sculpit plant left in the herb bed- I think the winter cold did them in- and two that sprouted under the deck which I will move.

Monarda all seems to be missing from the rear flower bed, too. Just one or two, and lots of mock strawberry, where they used to be thick. I wonder if it was too cold for them (but all the echinacea are alive and well). However there's this one that was in bed 9, which I dug up and moved to the larger sideyard, so when multiplies itself I can restock the back area as well.

learning more IDs

that blueish plant I have admired so often I take photos of it almost every year, that changes leaf shape as it matures and sends up a small white flower when it gets taller? It's white avens, a native. So I'll happily continue to let it grow in parts of my yard. However, I also learned that the purple dead nettle (flanking the white avens upper right of second photo) is considered invasive, so now I pull that one.

This plant I think is cleavers, though I'll have to check if it's actually 'sticky' next time I find some. It tends to grow on my narrow sideyard among the gladiolas and joe pye weed.

Garlic mustard, highly invasive. I know to pull this one carefully in wet spring, to get all the roots without breaking. And I throw it away, not risking the compost. Too bad, as I find the leaf shape rather attractive.

If I have it right, this is a vetch and probably invasive-

Lastly, a speedwell. I am not sure, but my best guess is not native however one of the ones that is just naturalized in my area- not a huge problem but easy to pull out if I want to put something else there. I am trying to keep it from reaching the lawn.

Don't know this one but feel I ought to:

I am working on pulling out the ones I regret having planted- creeping jenny and bugleweed (where it has jumped into the lawn). And all the mock strawberry and vinca that was here before me.

up and up

My parsley came up yesterday! Doesn't look like much yet- little loops of stem unfolding.

More plants in the yard I am happy to see again- the mayapples I transplanted across the very back edge a year or two ago-

Lysimachia-

Pulled back some leaves to see the little shoots of late boneset-

Wild geranium trimmings I stuck in the ground various places the year before- are growing! (this one next to some ajuga)

And I'm trying to change how I feel about this plant- I now think it's some kind of fleabane, a native plant that provides early blooms for pollinators. There's a few clumps of it in the lawn that have annoyed me by coming back persistently every year- and they grow pretty fast after getting mowed over. I dug up and moved several into an area in the back around base of a shade tree- where I'd rather have something else not the yellow salvia anymore.

rescued unknowns

I weeded the beet and carrot beds. There were quite a few seedlings I felt I ought to know- and I saved some of them in seedling trays to let them grow out a bit more, see if I can identify and want to plant elsewhere. I feel pretty sure these ones with broader cotyledons are the plant I think is shiso-

This one looks like it might be wild geranium? or some other flower

and these ones I have a hunch are a flower from plants I had in bed 9

Anyhow they're in the mini greenhouse for a while now, not looking so great with the shock of being pricked out

but I hope will recover so I can figure out what I want to do with them.

cold nights

again. I go out in the evening to cover the lettuces and chards with small cloches, and bring the tomato plants (and a few others) inside for the night. Most of them are now too tall for my screen boxes to protect

so I'm glad I found someone else giving away an old animal cage- much larger than the other one I have! which I took off the base and can just set over all the plants (to protect from my cat).

It just makes me so happy and content to see them growing and healthy.

things emerging

I take more walks around the yard, admiring the new green shoots and unfurling leaves, happy to recognize some, puzzling over others (I've forgotten so many names and appearances). 

Young leaves on my hybrid maple:

I love seeing the ostrich ferns arise! (though do need to pull weeds here)

I'm pretty sure this is obedient plant 

Glad that much of the little sedums I moved over here when took out the remains of the stump in the front yard (where this pretty little redbud is now growing!)

are still here- mixed thickly with violets in this spot-

here's a fuller stand of it-

I know this is a flowering plant I put here on purpose- the taller stems among the violets- but I can't remember what it is, or what it looks like blooming

This one I distinctly remember transplanting as well- catmint?

Since this turned into a walk down the 'sunny' sideyard, here's the last plant to show: my hollies! They grew a lot this past year. The one on the left (with a chunk of old stump under it) is much shorter- gets less light

The one on the right is taller than me now!

spring flowers!

tulips (a few days ago)

and now-

spring beauty 

bleeding hearts emerging 

Camellia!

For the longest time I didn't know what this flower was coming up through my spiderwort, 

but I found out this week that it's Virginia bluebell!

There's grape hyacinths in the backyard scattered here and there

and violets everywhere.

Soon I will also have lily of the valley,

Lungwort:

Lots of hellebores this year:

and that's enough pictures for now

more edibles

I have found another way I like the hairy bittercress: on crackers with a spread (in this case, fish roe something that my husband bought).

While walking around the yard the other day I took a ton of photos, trying to remember once again if certain plants are desirable to keep or should I pull them up. Found to my surprise that there's more edible weeds in our yard! Apparently curly dock

chickweed

and henbit (not pictured) are all nutritious.

Of course, I will be more sure of an actual ID before I sample any of them.