so much spring

Picking up fallen twigs around the yard, walking around on stones above the mud, admiring the green of new growth and yanking a few weeds. My oakleaf hydrangea has been bare up until yesterday! Now unfolding fat pale leaves that from a distance look like floating tips.

Nearby, the astilbe is coming up too

and the bleeding hearts

this little one so pretty with raindrops on it

and all the columbines

On the shady sideyard, what a surprise. Stinkin' hellebores are prolific, no kidding. Look how many seedlings I found! A thick crowd, surely if I thin out and let half of these grow, at least a few will make it to maturity.

spring is bursting

pink buds on heucherella

tiny blue flowers already above the heartleaf brunnera

I'm really glad to see my bugleweed (ajuga) has lots of buds!

this one is already reading out to spread onto new ground

columbine so pretty. Intended to move this one to the front yard but didn't yet

bleeding hearts

astilbe

salvia

Rudbeckia emerging

and echinacea

Monarda is thick already

Some autumn joy sedums I planted in a back section of the yard is coming up

Allium looks a bit thicker than last year- maybe it multiplied

Peony was just showing points, and a few days later when I got out to take a picture they're already inches taller, which beginning of leaves unfurling.

I even found that my rhubarb is still alive- though looking quite small. Maybe I should shift it again.

yard plants-

Just some photos of things growing in the yard. All the plump, oblong buds my camellia had this spring, turned into a flush of bright new leaves. I have a fall-blooming one.

Milkweed is setting buds-

Can't wait to see black-and-blue salvia bloom this year!

Bright edges of liriope glows against the duller mulch and darker hellebore behind it

Feathery flower buds of astilbe-

Several of the astilbe are nearly hidden among the monarda and echinacea-

Rhubarb is in that thicket, too-

Rudbeckia came up very lush-

Mostly echinacea in this photo- hellebore on the left, fern in the back against the tree

Rudbeckia in front, echinacea behind, monarda in the background- it's a wall of plants!

Red-striped rumex with liriope, hellebores, echinacea and rhubarb

Purplish-red flowers on the new salvia-

Here's a full shot of the rear perennial bed, I thought it would be nice to compare to similar one from last year or the year before (but haven't located the older photo yet).

more plant stuff

because it's spring! Clematis reaching out

I'm expecting some gorgeous blooms!

Heucherella next to the garden

That rose-like plant I still suspect is a weed-

it looks nicer than the year before

Astilbes are coming up among the echinacea

Which are so many. I will have to start thinning out the younger plants

Only one of my rhubarb has grown back. Sad. Probably another reason to move it. Right now same size foliage as the arum. Rumex in front. Doubled in size from year before.

Peony grows fast!

yard plants

How they're doing as june heat rises. Salvia- pretty darn good in spite of a few bug holes. It likes its new location.

Rumex- this has remained just a decorative plant. I looked up more about its use and read it can have side effects for some people. Not sure if I want to use it in salads after all.

Tithonia is only ankle height. I doubt I will get a good mass of flowers this year. Celosia in my front yard spot has the same fate: those are barely knee high and already blooming- thin little flower spikes. Definitely two plants not worth taking the trouble over, if I have a late start it seems.

Liriope is looking lovely!

My ferns are looking better this year. I've found out that some of the red bugs crawling all over my plants in the back garden are box elder bugs and red-shouldered bugs. The boxelder bugs definitely damage plants- they suck the sap out- so I have begun squashing all I see. I usually just clap my hands on them, quickly from both sides of the leaf. They're usually on these ferns, and my hellebores, rhubarb and hydrangeas.

The rhubarb sprawls. It's got pill bugs on it too, as well as those red ones.

One plant keeps repeatedly sending up flower stalk.

Columbine doesn't look so great this year. It's already done blooming and the seed pods are few. Looks like something has been eating it.

I need to dig out and move this variegated hosta next year- it's getting smothered by monarda and echinacea!

This white-edged hosta nearby is also getting overtaken. I'll probably give it away. I'm not fond of white streaks on plants (they look unwell to me).

Here in between astilbe and bleeding heart, a volunteer shrub- I think it's viburnum. Must dig up and move, if I can figure out where to put it.

This side view of the back bed, from the walkway, is starting to look rather nice. There's an empty gap in the middle where I tried growing cosmos last year. It's been populated by a few echinacea seedlings- I might let them grow up there.

Other side of the bed is still rather sparse. Behind the liriope are the two heartleaf brunnera I added this year, and some third-year hellebores are two coleus I set out on a whim just to fill in space, and a few hosta I'm debating if I should move or not (they get just enough shade here to avoid sunburn).

Now that I have my own astilbe, I recognize it on other properties when I see it- and realize some of these might get a lot bigger if I don't trim them. Nice if I want to fill in a lot of space, not so if it's going to crowd out other plants.

I've finished up the weeding- but occasionally miss one because it looks so healthy and handsome- like this one (probably a pokeweed).

At the very back of the garden, turtlehead under the tree had been attacked by mealy bugs. So had some of the rudbeckia just across the walkway from it- with yellowing leaves mottled dark spots on the lower part of the plant. I cleaned all the sickly leaves off and used soap spray on the insects last week. Both plant groups look better now.