Gardening Like There's No Tomorrow

So it's started: that mad scramble to buy, assemble and compose, feed, and plant. This part of Spring is so incredibly busy... that's MY excuse for not having posted sooner. I take my vocation as a "life style coach" VERY seriously and it's on me when I neglect my hungry followers. I apologize! But sometimes, living that heady, fast paced life style precludes the reporting on it.
So the picture at the top represents my initial foray into container planting. It's so much fun gathering all these colorful and seductive annuals and arranging for them to spend the summer together. Sometimes my head spins with the possibilities. Here's a shot of some of my raw material:

These are some of the plants I kept having to move out of my studio and back in every night when the weather was still chilly! It became quite the ordeal. Now I'm of the mindset that if we get a cold night- too bad! And that's only a fraction of what I've already planted.

Here's a shot of the amazing tulips that we obtained through our friend Hanneke who works at a tulip importer called ColorBlends. We can't say enough good things about their bulbs! Spectacular! So much better quality; the tulips and daffodils bloomed longer and were altogether bigger and more vibrant. Our Spring displays were amazing. Of course the irony is that few people got to see them as COVID 19 has put a cabosh on visitors!

Here's another tulip bed. These were inferior "Big Box" tulips and are already gone by. They also did not stand up well to the harsh weather and winds we experienced. I sound like an advertisement but boy there was a noticeable difference. I'm planting this bed in with cannas and zinnia linearis. That will be posted soon enough!

And Bob has been busy in the vegetable garden. We have been devouring salad after salad of wonderful delicate little greens.This is the same bed I featured in a previous posting. You can see how much these seedlings have grown. And take a look:

Bob meticulously transplants all those individual plants so they have room to grow. We eat the thinnings... I'm so lucky. Nothing I like better than tiny tender lettuce!
So forgive me if it's another few days before I post again; we're both busy in the great outdoors. We've also started grass seed in the horse field, mowed the lawn, Bob's planted his birthday present azalea (Delaware Valley White) and peonies (Festiva Maxima, Scarlett O'Hara and Do Tell) in a completely new display garden by the driveway. That way, when people pick up their metal plant supports (mostly peony rings!) they can see his work in action. It looks terrific! No wonder we're tired!

Hooray for Rain!

Well, yes, the rain is a good thing except that it came in buckets and piles and droves and gigantic, epic cascades. I was outside, attempting to plant some of the many plants and seedlings that need attention, making decent progress when it started to rain. I ignored it for a few minutes, being already muddy and soaked through. But the thunder came and the rain got harder and harder and even Jules wondered why we were still outside. It's a good thing I sought shelter when I did because the rain was heroic and continued for the entire evening. And into today! I even left work a bit early as it was slow, thinking I could return to my gardening tasks but it started pouring on my way home and I was washed out again.
But there are some early (for me) garden high lights. The above Clematis "Elsa Spath" (apparently also called "Xerxes") was a rescue. I bought it- on clearance- two years ago at Walmart of all places) for (gasp) $1.50. It consisted (at that point of a badly bent stem, all of about eight inches long with this one giant flower. I admit it, I didn't have any real hope of its survival; I just felt bad for it. But here's one grateful clematis! Great color, too. I tried (unsuccessfully) to get a good shot of the dark purple smoke bush (Cotinus) behind the Clematis as they really are spectacular together. Here's a closer shot- these flowers are huge!

Of course all that rain has probably shattered the flowers; I know it's making a mess out of the peonies! Gardening has its frustrations. Too bad we can't all put out multiple buckets and collect all the extra rain and send it to California.

How about a cheesy shot of fiddleheads? I took this a couple of weeks back on my walk. I know people eat them- and they're delicious! but they're so early to come up that it seems a shame. Not much else is green then. And now suddenly, so many things are blooming!