My garden continues to grow and change daily. All of my bulbs have passed (I need to put in tulips this fall as I now know that they are good for eating) so it is up to the ground cover to hold the flower line until my later spring blossoms keep up.
Last year we planted some creeping phlox since we’re both obsessed with how it looks at one of the local art spaces and its native to our area. There are four color varietals but this hot pink one bloomed first. The other three are right behind it though – I think that they will have blossoms by the end of today now that the sun is out again.
When we moved in, there wasn’t Ground Ivy (aka Creeping Charlie) in the garden – it must have snuck in with one of the many plants that our friends donated to our cause. This is what has crept the farthest across the ground of the garden so far but that’s great because it is what our early bees have been visiting (as opposed to the dandies like everybody always says).
My late spring bloomers are growing fast though! I think that we may get a lupin bloom this year – they are really starting to look like a real plant. (And look glorious full of raindrops, too.)
And False Indigo! I am so excited. We planted this two years ago from a sproutling and it has been such a flimsy little thing for so long. I think this year we may see what they are really about. I look forward to making some ink from its blossoms.
Also in its third year, my Sea Holly has finally gotten a good hold on the garden. We knew that they would – they were one of our sproutlings (along with the false indigo) that we bought specifically because it is a pollinator plant indigenous to this area. This, along with its sibling Rattlesnake Master, are what brought all of the bees to the yard last Summer.
Finally, sweet yarrow. This little plant didn’t have a good transplant last summer and we were a bit worried but it’s coming back nice and strong. I can’t wait to get to know it better as it blooms this season.
I want to be more consistent in my blogging of the garden process this year. My partner and I are really working to try to keep our garden wild – go for our local birds and bees – while also keeping it accessible and useful for ourselves. It is part of our path towards greening our own lives. And it is an endless adventure. There is so much to be done – our basement plants (grow light babies) are almost ready to go into the ground – we’re just watching the weather for a week or two more since we’ve had a number of late frosts this season. And weeding…always more weeding.