Still mostly crocuses and daffodils here.

I showed a pic of Toby the First upthread when it was just opening. It's now in full bloom and the petals have faded to their mature colors.

N. Toby the First:

Pieris Little Heath has a few blooms. The pierises are not doing well this year, maybe related to last year's major drought.

Scilla sibirica is popping up in various places where it doesn't get trampled by the turkeys and squirrels.

Dicentra Gold Heart is sprouting next to some tulip leaves.

Claire

Nice collection Claire! Spring is unfurling somewhat slowly here too. No flowers at all on the one Pieris here. But I planted it last year and despite watering as much as I could, I don't think it was enough. Better luck next year but I'm not liking the dry conditions I'm seeing already for April.

Sue

Claire, I can't believe your Dicentra is up already! Mine is nowhere in sight. And I really like your Toby the First Daffodil. I love Pieris but it hates me, very lucky it grows for you, such a pretty shrub.

Sue, our garden is very dry this year and such a comparison to last year. Last year I had a lot of spring rain after a fairly dry winter and the grass and all the early bulbs and perennials were spectacular. This year the daffodils are actually surprising me. Even after so many nights in the 20's and one morning it was 20 on my back porch, as soon as it warmed up they now look pristine. But the hyacinths in my front bed are half the size they normally are. And shrubs look like they are less vigorous so far. So I am watering. I managed to get a rain barrel out before the last rain and I'm using that and yesterday - Wow - what a spectacular day!! Great working outside. After we cleaned up the full sun bed I put the sprinkler on it for 2 hrs and did the rest of the lawn. I've also been watering some of the rest of the garden by hand for the past week as I've been able to. Today I plan on using the sprinkler on the rest of the yard.

Sue - you use a lot of outdoor containers, what kind of potting soil do you use or do you mix your own? I was thinking of doing more pots and it's expensive to fill these large containers, do you fill all the way or use a filler in the bottom? Plus I just had a problem with expensive organic seed starter mix that I used to start my vegetables. I normally mix mine but I'm always looking to improve my potting soil.

Someone gave me a dicentra 21 years ago this June (it was a special date) and I put it in this pot with the black gold I had under decades of leaf compost. The plant has been in the same place and every year it comes up -- I do nothing. If a plant is happy, it's happy. Picture was taken 4-12-21. It faces East and is partially shaded in summer by a big old sugar maple.

Jane

PM, that columbine sounds enticing. I'm generally not the biggest columbine fan b/c I'm not too fond of the flowers etc. for Aquilegia canadensis, which I like very very much. But, I would grow it for beautiful foliage! I'll have to keep my eyes open for it.

Dicentra is getting taller--yea!

This campion rosette looks really nice with the sempervivum. Totally unplanned. Campion tend to be that way. No plans, just seed where they want.

Cherry Cheesecake rhododendron is not known to have stamina. I am apparently testing its endurance. Maybe I think it will build character, who knows. It almost passed on after the winter of ?2018-19?. I protected it the next year. Last summer I moved it next to the house where it would be out of winds and sheltered. I didn't get around to protecting it, as I figured it's new location was good enough. Nope. She's a finicky one. We'll TLC her this summer and try to be a better caretaker next winter.

My Percy Wiseman rhodies right beside Ms. Cheesecake were also unprotected and look pristine. C'mon, cheesecake!

Deanna - Last season they were so large and lush, this year they are pretty small and not really making much of a contribution so far. I am blaming it on the dryness. They do reseed nicely too. For me they are pretty much carefree. If I don't want more of them, I deadhead that's about it. One of my favorite clumps didn't even come back this year. Oh well. If you want just the foliage - there is a gold leaved version that is very pretty and if you have both they contrast each other nicely.

Nice bunch of Dicentra - mine barely came back this season too but I do see some coming back. I love those too. Yes, very neat healthy Campion plant. I enjoy plants that pop up in different places too.

You must really like the Cherry Cheesecake Rhodie to have to baby it. Poor sad little thing.

Still lots of daffodils here - the mid-season ones are blooming (mostly Ice Follies and Lemon Glow).

N. Lemon Glow with scilla sibirica Spring Beauty:

Jetfire is still blooming away:

And Rhododendron Mary Fleming Has flower buds opening! This is the most color she shows - the flowers will be a subtle pinkish-beige but still beautiful.

It's supposed to rain tonight (I hope) and I figure the daffodils may get knocked down.

Claire

....and tomorrow we may actually get 2 inches? Can't wait. Your rhododendron made it through the winter very well, Claire and that Lemon Glow has such a big trumpet!

I am delighted that there are so many photos of early gardens. I have some of my second wave of bulbs blooming, including a variety of daffodils and Scilla..

I also have a few other things in bloom but my internet is super slow this evening so I will post when I have better bandwidth.

Amazing, Jane! I am at a low enough elevation that it has remained above freezing, though higher elevations have snow here in NH. I have a bit of slush falling but it is melting as it falls and quickly ends up as liquid. We need the precipitation so I don’t mind, though the dog is not a fan!

I looked at Jane's picture of the snow and I realized I forgot to mention that the forsythia are blooming here. I don't have any good photos but it's a milestone.

Claire

I had a ton of snow here today. Everything is covered. I'm surprised it stuck and there is over an inch on the lawn.

We had some snow here today too. Fortunately it didn't last long and was part of a system that also delivered just over two inches of much needed rain.

Our forsythia are also blooming now. I didn't notice if buds had opened during the snowfall, but if they did I'm sure sorry I missed that amazing photo op. I know they day before snow they were unopened.

Chives are not only up but beginning to bud. I enjoy the forsythia I see from the window behind my computer monitor. Winter idleness means I only have the stamina to work outside an hour or two and I left all the clean up until now so the birds and insects can enjoy the seedheads etc. I bought Vole Scram because of all the vole damage and saw one of the critters 2 days ago but we don't seem to have the tunnels thru the grass like last year. Vole Scram just makes things taste bad and doesn't poison them. The Mayflower viburnum finally got sprayed yesterday with deer repellant. I've lost almost every flower bud cluster for the past couple of years. But my husband also built a new raised bed with a hardware cloth bottom for root vegetables. Last year not only did I have a poor potato crop but something, probably a coyote, dug a big hole (and hopefully got the critter(s)).

Mini jonquils I bought by mistake are now fading but were great early yellow show. The big daffodils are blooming now. The clump under where I put a hanging basket is now huge thanks to the dripping liquid fertilizer the basket gets (mixed with water).

Anyone buy any new tools? I love my Cape Cod weeder look alike but started looking for a long handled weeder type hoe. I found a long handled cobra head weeder from the company that makes them which does free shipping. Now I can stand to do some of the tough weeding like the quack grass that creeps in under the wood frame base of my high tunnel.

Thanks to last year's wet spring the vegetable garden never got a layer of composted manure. I wanted two yards but dh said his truck could only take one yard. Why? Well, a yard of composted manure weighs about 1,000 lbs. I did a pretty good job of keeping up with him as we shoveled it out of the pickup. That means I may have shoveled 500 lbs and survived!

About 40 years ago my parents bought the whittled down remnants of a farm. The barn had burned so was long gone. It was a pleasant old cape but as they got older the upkeep was too much for them and the open fields started growing up to bushes and pine saplings. After they died we had to sell it in "as is" condition after several dumpster loads of debris was carted off. People were attracted to the open house by the low price but we only got two offers and ended up selling to a second cousin and her husband who fortunately have all the skills, etc. to renovate everything. In fact, at first they were going to tear the house down but the unusual granite foundation appealed to her husband and then he discovered the house was post and beam that was still in very good shape. He pulled and jacked it back into almost perfect square but the interior was completely gutted. Needless to say, he never stops working and his parents spend the summers here and go right to work helping out.

BTW I treated myself to Vermont gardener Bill Nobile's book Spirit of Place last fall. I just discovered that two of his lectures via zoom were recorded and can be found on YouTube. It's a lovely book your library might have and well written. He and his partners garden on an old property. The old barn foundation has become an interesting rock garden.

Happy spring!

Donna, Where in New England are you? I have chives up but no flower buds yet.

I can sympathize about the stamina to work outside. Most years I am able to keep an exercise program going so I'm ready for gardening, but this year, it didn't work out, so I hired a high school boy to help me. I don't usually get that lucky to find someone but glad it worked out this year. Spring is such an intense work time. So many things need doing as fast as you can get them done. I would be way behind by now, if I didn't have help.

Sounds like you have a lot of critters interfering with your gardening efforts. Frustrating. Some years are worse than others. We had a rabbit build a nest in one of our raised beds this spring, but they are gone already. There were 5 tiny bunnies in there. I'm sure they'll be back to eat my vegetables. I was pretty cranky about it last year, but this year, I've decided I'm not going to let them ruin my enjoyment of the garden. I'm trying a little experimenting to see what efforts will pay off to keep them out of the garden, but I'm not counting on any of them working. [g]

I was just reading about fertilizing bulbs. Normally the advice is to use bone meal in the spring or fall, but this article suggested using fish emulsion on them while they are growing. Sounds like that is what you've been doing with the patch that is under your hanging basket.

You shoveled 500 pounds of composted manure? lol That sounds like a lot of stamina! Was that last year? Where do you find composted manure?

Enjoyed the story of your parents home and the new owner/cousin. A granite foundation and post and beam construction, your parents did a great job of buying quality.

PM2, Donna has posted in the past as defrost, and he is about 1/2 hour from me in central NH.

Babs, that is so funny....lol. I thought it was someone new. And is this a couple that posts or one person? Either way - enjoy hearing how everyone is doing.. 😀 Thanks.

Donna, I also enjoyed Bill Noble's book. I used to be a garden book skimmer looking mostly at the pictures. Now I'm actually reading them. I just finished Gardening Fearlessly by Loree Bohl. I've actually been to Loree's garden in Portland, OR. She grows a lot of cool plants that are expensive annuals here but her book was an easy read and gave me new ways to look at my own garden.

Has anybody else stopped getting email notifications for comments and likes on GW threads? That's how I knew there was activity here but I'm not getting them anymore.

Sue

I still get the email notifications, Sue, knock on wood. Who knows what Houzz is doing.

Claire

I get them sporadically. I would say at least 75% of posts don't result in an email to me. Not sure why. According to my settings I should get more. By the way, I don't know about "likes" as I never requested emails for those. Only posts.

I get email notifications for this thread because I initiate it each month, and for messages. I have it set so I don’t get emails for other things, but I can check those in the notifications list when I click the bell in the upper right corner of every page.

My settings are for notification on anything I post to or threads I'm following and I often find that I find responses that I was not notified off. It's very spotty.

For those who may remember, this is where the 80' tall pines once lived in 2008.

Prairie fire crabapple (bronze, left) Thundercloud Plum (pink), Ornamental Pear (white), TC Plum (pink). Rhodys will be next.

Jane

Jane, one of my first memories of you here was when this bed was made. You created a gorgeous bed with that sequence of spring bloom along with the evergreen interest and fall color. So lovely!

Jane, didn't you have a problem with your border and had to move some big old rhododendrons? I seem to remember a series of photos about that.

PM2, yes, that is correct.

Rhododendron Mary Fleming is in full bloom now.

Claire

Yikes, I didn't know my ID got changed around. I'm going back to defrost49 if I can figure it out. I got a notice that prairiemoon had commented on my thread and notices are now going to my seldom used email account.

My chives may be benefiting from being so close to the house. They are in a sheltered spot next to our small kitchen porch. As Babs said, I'm just north of Concord NH. We're in a lower elevation than our neighbors so we usually get hit with a frost before they do but my herb garden might be a little micro climate.

Only 28 degrees this morning and my daffodils look pretty sad. Rain was heavy yesterday afternoon and probably beat them down.

Claire, that is a beautiful rhododendron color.

I must have set up a new account by accident which is hard to imagine.

defrost - I would blame it on Houzz. [g] Has to be their fault. lol

30F on my back porch but the sun's out. We didn't get that much rain at all, just a sprinkle. I did get my rain barrels filled the last time it rained and I've been using those a lot already. Have had the sprinkler on too. My tomato pepper seedlings are back under lights this morning instead of outside.

Claire, that really is a very pretty subtle color and look at all that healthy foliage after some rhododendrons suffered over the winter.

Chop stick supports for climbing nasturtiums. Just a couple weeks before they are planted outside and climb on an obelisk - hopefully.

Jane 😊 (glad we used forks)

Chilly today and the tulips closed up, but yesterday I had Fur Elise tulips blooming next to my Dicentra Gold Hearts.

I have a little Gold Heart that I planted a bit too close to the big one so I have a fence to separate them until the little guy can grow up and not be squashed. Its first tulip is blooming now

There's a lily-flowered tulip that comes back almost every year and is about to bloom too.

Claire

That Dicentra 'Gold Hearts' looks very lush. Every year mine are either disappearing or coming back smaller. I think it is my dry yard. Your tulips must have opened before mine, which makes sense, since you're in a warmer zone. Are yours in full sun?

I have one tulip in my whole yard. [g] It's 'Apricot Beauty' and I planted it over a good 15 years ago and it reliably comes back every year. I stopped buying tulips because they disappeared so fast. I did buy one of the shorter red colored, I think they are Kaufmanniana? But I didn't enjoy them. I still have one that I ignore.

I had it planted facing South but as my Japanese Maple tree grew larger, it was in more shade, but it still keeps coming back. Finally, I dug it up and there were multiple bulbs that I moved to my full sun bed. I didn't think I left any in the original location, but this spring both locations have tulips. The one in full sun appears to be three. So I have 3 more than I had before. Unfortunately it's an apricot color and I managed to plant it right next to a pale pink Hyacinth and they clash. [g] So, I'll be moving it again and hopefully buying more to go with it. It's just starting to color up on one and there are 3 buds still green. I'm going to move it next to Hyacinth 'City of Haarlem' which is a pretty pale yellow that ripens to a white. It's the only Hyacinth that is still in good shape and it would be white by the time all the tulips open. But if I buy more tulips, I'm going to buy more purple Hyacinths to pair with it as well.

PM2: The dicentra and the tulips get late morning and afternoon sun. They're right by my porch steps so it's easy to see if they need water.

Claire

A tulip that lasts 15 years? That's amazing! Wow. We are just so dry up here. Expecting some rain over the next few days. Naturally, the office is closed for two weeks and I could actually work on the boats, so it decides to rain. It could have rained while the office was open, but, no....

;-)

I think things in my garden are emerging and impatiently holding off, like racehorses at the start line, for the rain to come.

Deanna, I have used my sprinklers twice already and really as soon as the plants finally got some water, they started to perk up and put on some growth. I also filled two rain barrels the last time it rained, so I've been using that with a watering can too.

Today it was so windy and it was drying out the soil in my vegetable bed where I just planted some seedlings and I had to go out and water them. We could really use a soaking rain. But doesn't it always work out that it's on the weekend, so you can't get out in the garden or do anything outside? Cest la vie. lol

So true, PM—sunny every day I have to be inside and rainy when I can get outside!! We’ve had wind, too. Farmers almanac predicted no drought. Hope they’re right!

My dicentra are now this big:

Deanna we are forecast for rain a few times this week but only 1/10th of an inch of rain 2 or 3x. I can't wait for a real soaker. But I have one more rain barrel to get out first. I hope they are right too. That is a very nice size dicentra.

Finally took some photos. Excuse the blurriness, it was pretty windy last night.

Narcissus 'Ceylon' a good performer.

My vegetable beds are to the Left here, and that is my neighbor on my right side. They just had a tree company there for 2 days trimming back all the dead branches and overgrowth they had on their 8 spruce trees, a mature Sycamore and White Pine that are lined up along about 90 feet of our lot line. A LOT of dead branches cut off and now their property is very visible. Time to rehab that area and I want to plant for a screen.

Here is the 'Apricot Beauty' Tulip with the poor choice location next to the pink Hyacinths. I was trying to get them behind the Penstemon so the dying foliage would be hidden. I think I'll move the Hyacinth bulbs. The Milk crates are covering my Lilies at night to keep the rabbits from chewing them to the ground the way they did last year.

I wonder does anyone know if you can separate bulbs every Fall to increase them or do you have to leave them alone for a year or so?

'Bantam' Narcissus. Again windy - not crisp. These have been planted here at least 4 years and that's all the flowers I'm getting. More than last year, but still - all that foliage and only a few flowers. They are in full sun too.

I thought this Rose 'Beverly' was dead this spring. It looked dead as a doorknob. No growth long after all the other roses were leafing out. I cut it back to the ground and the inside of the cane was brown and dry. I left it covered up with leaves with the encouragement of everyone on the rose forum and happy surprise, it's back!

This was a new Epimedium the year before last. It's still small, but I bought it small from Garden Visions. I forget the name, I'm really loving it.

And another one...

Hydrangea 'Pink Diamond' I bought this in standard form. It was expensive. I was never happy with the way it looked. I don't know if I was pruning it wrong or what, but I finally had enough and cut it down to the ground, hoping it would come back and I could use it as a normal shrub form. Here it is coming back. I think plants that you thought were lost coming back for you are some of the happiest garden events.

I spent our two sunny days indoors with paperwork and other chores which did not include potting up vegetable seedlings. Now we have rainy weather but hopefully today I will get indoor chores and town errands done. My husband did the first lawn mowing of the season with promises to bag grass cuttings for the compost bin and for mulching. He bagged enough for my present needs but the mower chute finally fell off and need replacing. My riding mower that I use as a mini tractor to haul my garden cart has already donated the mower deck to my husband's mower plus he bought a bargain used John Deere for parts but that has ended up as a mini tractor for our young grandson to drive around.

The dandelions were blooming so I felt torn about mowing early food for bees and other insects but we only mow the yard area and everything else is left to grow except for annual August mowing and brush hogging.

We took a late afternoon ride to Dunbarton NH on an errand. The timing was good to see lots of daffodils planted throughout the town. Our friend said there was a project to encourage people to plant daffodils and the result is lovely. I know there are towns on the Cape that celebrate daffodils with mass plantings. Any place else?

A young friend posted a photo of her children picnicking while she foraged for fiddleheads. We have lots of ferns around but I've never found the edible variety. No ramps either.

Defrost - It’s really a shame that life has to get in the way of our gardening. [g]

Last year, we changed our mowing habits a little. We started mowing higher on the first cut of the season and staying higher. Normally we’d cut as low as possible in both early spring and fall and not start keeping it long until it gets hot. I thought it made sense to follow that recommendations because the taller grass shades out some of the weeds. I thought it looked better last year. Don’t get me wrong - we leave a lot of ‘weeds’ growing in the lawn and do not use commercial lawn products at all. We have clover, violets and dandelions and a few others. We use all the grass for mulch mixed with fall leaves when we have them and mulch the vegetable garden.

I’m always afraid to delay cutting the dandelions because they go to seed so quickly and I don’t notice and then miss my chance before the seeds are flying all over the yard. I am happy to have some dandelion but I don’t want to keep increasing them. [g]

I’m doing the same thing with my Blue Holly. It needs a hard pruning but it’s full of flower buds that the bees just love and I’m waiting until that is done to prune it.

Dunbarton for a daffodil display - that sounds nice. I’ve always wanted to go to Daffodil Week on Nantucket but have never made it. Too busy using every weekend to get the garden ready every year. That’s a nice idea for a community to focus on adding daffodils. I don’t know of another place, sorry.

I don’t have the fiddlehead ferns either. I wonder if New England Wildflower Society has them?

Sometimes, all I need is a nice pile of dirt.

And new perennials.

(that's last year's geranium on the left) New plants are, Lamium, Silver Beacon: Sage Salvia, Blue Marvel: Liriope muscari, Big Blue: Salvia "Wendy's Wish" - a pink/red blossom - hummers love it.

And rain. More rain.

I was out in the garage searching for a bucket in which to mix wildflower seeds when I sow them in the expanded Streetside Meadow, and found a bag of sand in the bucket left over from my failed attempt at growing munstead lavender. It occurred to me when I saw the remainder of the bag "Play Sand for Sandboxes" in the bucket, that my love of dirt hasn't changed much since age 3. Happiest then when alone dreaming in my sandbox, and now, still happiest in my head when mixing Pro-Mix and Moo Doo compost. 😊

Jane

PM2 I divide and move bulbs in the spring after they finish flowering. I dig them up foliage and all and relocate as needed. It's easier to see where they are needed this time of year and see where I already have bulbs planted (raise your hand if you've ever dug up existing bulbs when planting new ones in the fall). Right now I'm moving snowdrops and crocus. Next will be daffodils, tulips then alliums. I've never lost a bulb doing this.

How much rain did you get, Jane? I'm up to a whopping quarter inch here today-just under three inches for the month. I've been selectively watering established shrubs yet again this spring. What ever happened to April showers will bring May flowers?

Sue

Sue, I saw Monty on Gardener's World doing that with his snowdrops and I'm definitely hoping to get that done this spring. Snowdrops and Scilla and hyacinths I'd like to spread around. Glad that has been working for you. I feel the same way, that when you move an actual plant during the season it blooms, it's much easier to see where it's going to fit best.

We had an actual downpour yesterday and everything is soaked this morning and the sun is out. Much needed! Rain barrels are full again.

Sue W - Wednesday night through late last night, 4/28-29, we got a scant 1/4" as well. It's dry and I am hoping NE will not suffer drought again, but so far, with less rainfall and a weak snow pack, we are way below normal. Photo source from eweather, Haddam, CT, but also https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu

Cape Ann made out well.

Same source.

Jane

It is views like this outside my windows that my older self thanks my younger self for reading posts and books by older gardeners who always emphasized to plan for the future, e.g., New England author, Sydney Eddison's, "Gardening for a Lifetime". One trip to Lowe's years ago, $12.95, planted by my hopeful younger self now produces this view when the thought of digging today makes me think of Biofreeze.

Kwanzan cherry with Yankee Doodle lilac in background

Kwanzan and sugar maple in bloom. So much life!

Jane 😊

That is gorgeous, Jane! I love Kwanza cherry trees and lilacs too.