May in Bloom

Progress in the garden and outside might be slow, but mother nature forges onwards anyways. Spring was a little late this year, but now it seems to be making up for lost time. The trees are blooming, the leaves are just starting to come out, and the garden is coming back to life.

The strawberries are starting to bloom in the strawberry patch - I can't wait for the fruit in June.

The rhubarb that disappeared after being eaten by the rabbits came back. I thought they had gotten the roots as well, but its coming back - I am relieved!

The birds must have dropped a few raspberry seeds elsewhere in the yard last summer, because this spring a couple of new little raspberry bushes popped up. I was going to just pull them up, but then it occurred to me that  I could attempt to transplant them by the raspberry patch - it was a hard winter and not all the bushes came back that I was hoping for. Several days later and the plants are still alive so I'm hoping they took root.

The hellaboris has two blooms on it. I love how the older bloom is fading to purple and lime green.

The dianthus that miraculously survived overwintering in the garage had its first bloom.

There are so many wildflowers as well - little white pinks ones in the grass and a huge swath of violets between the driveway and the fence. They are so beautiful I forget they are weeds.

We have grape hyacinths everywhere, probably almost a hundred of them now. We seem to get more and more every year.

My fothergilla bush by the garage is blooming - the flowers look like bottle brushes.

The dogwood flowers are white with pink tips - so lovely.

The most lovely thing of all in our yard though right now is the red bud tree. It's big and covered in pinky purple blossoms that are so bright they practically glow neon. It's gorgeous, spectacular - pictures just don't do it justice. I've never seen one as beautiful as this before - it's just amazing.

This week I'm prepping the garden beds and hardening off the tomatoes in anticipation of planting the garden this weekend. I also just ordered 3 cubic yards of mulch to be delivered next week - we have a ton of mulching to do!