Spring: A Time For Gardening

Have been gardening all weekend.  Am so anxious to see what will come up this year!  The front yard gets afternoon sun, and the back yard gets morning sun.  My gardens are quite shaded in most areas, with only a few short hours of dappled sun.  I've been trying to plant appropriate perennials, but seem to need to move them the following year (nothing ever seems to stay where I plant it!).  Hostas work well in the shaed areas and are very low maintenance.  I have a few of the lighter colors and multi colored (green/white) hosta varieties as well.  The blue hostas take a bit longer to come up each spring.  I like to plant annuals every year for a burst of color (pansies, coleus), so I always leave room around the borders of the gardens.  I have also found that ferns do well in zone 6, and have planted 9 dark green ferns; which are now coming up, as well as 4 burgudy ferns.

The walkway to the front door, is surrounded by large shade gardens.  Very hard to fill with long lasting shrubs.  Seven window boxes are an anual thing, and I have them filled with those "long lasting" blooms!

Iris in purples and yellows do well in almost any type of soil.  They prefer to have a shallow planting; but need at least 6 hours of sunlight in order to get good blooms.

Bleeding hearts and grasses prefer dappled shade.  I have them planted under a pink flowering dogwood tree.

Our Grape hyacinth is almost gone now... here's a photo of a small cluster in the back yard.

Along the side of the house, we have rhododendrons, peonies, more bleeding hearts and iris; along with a few un-named shrubs that bloom each spring.

Here's one of the projects that I have started in the backyard.

My Daughter gave me this birdhouse years ago. Birds still nest in it every spring.

Our cherry tree was in full bloom last week.

This is my back patio project.  Last year, we painted the patio trim and hung these windows all along the top half of the patio.  Screening keeps out the bugs; and we placed heavy clear-plastic on the lower portion (on the outside of the screen), to keep out the rain. Next is the fun decorating part... More to come...


It will be the perfect spot for a cup of coffee in the mornings, while looking at the colorful stained glass windows...