The garden is blooming

So this one isn't blooming (I'm not sure if it will this year or not) but it is a woodland favorite of mine called a May Apple. In their natural habitat, they colonize entire hillsides near woodland streams. I have mine planted in one of my shade gardens.Nearby the May Apple, you'll find some of my columbine that is in full bloom. It is taking off and spreading throughout both shady and sunny areas. It reminds me of high meadows in Colorado where it is everywhere. This is another woodland plant but a small tree called viburnum. I think of it as a scaled back hydrangea.
Here are 2 of my current favorites: smoky indigo on the left and solomon's seal on the right. They're both in the front "sun" garden and doing well this year. The indigo was disappointing last year but looks like the one in the arboretum on campus this year (the standard to which I compare my wildflowers).

























This one (Dianthis) is a gift from David's folks. Their plants are well established so they consistently have to thin them out and either find new places for them or give them away. So I like going "shopping" when we visit them.
My herbs are even taking part of the spring blooming in the garden. These are chive flowers, one of the prettier herb flowers that I've seen.
In the meantime, we've moved past the last average frost date and as soon as I have time, I'll be planting tomatoes. The eggplants, okra, cucumbers, and tomatillos are working their way towards being planted. Next up for being started are more wildflowers, watermelons, and cantaloupes.

Pollen isn't the only thing happening around here.

One of the first signs of spring in the garden is asparagus. Ours has now sprouted and we'll have the first spear of it tonight with dinner! It is really exciting for me since last year (it's first year in the ground) we had to watch it sprout and not eat any of it. The good news is that it should do increasingly well for the next 10 or so years now.








I've also enlisted the help of my gardening sidekick to build a super cool trellis that I found in Organic Gardening magazine. After I get the snap peas in the ground, we'll add more twine so that they have lines to climb up.


In other parts of the yard the wildflowers are taking turns being pretty. Here are phlox and wild bleeding heart. Before much longer the columbine and indigo will be blooming.