It's that time of year again!

Spring has officially arrived and it is time to start regularly blogging about my garden. The snow is melted, although it is predicted to snow tomorrow! I've been out in my garden cutting down dead plants from last fall and raking away leaves to give the spring bulbs a better chance to reach the sunlight. My first crocus opened around St. Patrick's Day and for a northern gardener, that first flower is like Spring's reward for a long cold dark winter.I have yellow and purple crocus in my yard and definitely not enough of them. Every fall I look at the bulb selections in my local stores and I always want more tulips and daffodils. This fall I am not going to overlook the smaller, earlier blooming bulbs and will add many more crocus as well as snow drops. I've also been thinking that I need to add some Lenten Rose and see if I get anything blooming in February. The spring show of bulbs will start in just a few weeks and I can't wait to see what it looks like! Every fall I plant more bulbs and try to plant them in places that had no spring flowers. Some bulbs die out, some bulbs get dug up and eaten by squirrels and some bulbs just do not re flower, so adding bulbs each fall is the key to having a gorgeous spring display. Happy Gardening Season!

Mason Bees

A few weeks ago for my birthday, my sister Amy gave me a Mason Bee house. I've seen these bee houses in gardening magazines and on the Internet and thought they looked interesting. I'm fascinated with bees of all types and loved receiving this gift. Mason bees are not aggressive and are super pollinators - I've read that one Mason Bee can do the pollinating work of a thousand honey bees. With all of the flowers I have in my yard, I have lots of bees and other insects. Now that I've seen a picture of a Mason Bee (they are green blue in color and not striped yellow and black - what you typically think of when you think bees) I will keep my eyes open for them. From what I've read about them, they only appear in the spring, but this has been a strange weather and gardening year, so maybe they are still around. In the spring when the mason bees come out of hibernation, they mate and the female lays her eggs in woody crevices she finds. A Mason Bee house gives the Mason Bee a place to lay their eggs. The bees who hatch are likely to stay in the area, so hopefully I can increase my bee population even more.

An update on my last post - I have two delphiniums that have re bloomed! I was so excited and happy to see the new blooms. They are smaller blooms than the originals, but lovely none the less.

There really is a lot of gardening time left in WNY

I was looking at my garden the other day and thought to myself "My garden is on its decline toward fall." Then I read an article and it talked about how we have about 10 more weeks until we get a frost and that there is lots of gardening time left. After reading this, my gardening energy renewed! I took a second look at my garden and thought "There are still so many flowers blooming and many I can dead head to produce a second blooming." So, this morning, I was out in my garden cutting back my Purple Rain salvia, which grows to jungle proportions and produces beautiful smokey purple blooms on spikes that engulf my sidewalk. I felt much better after cutting those back (2 garbage bags full! Sadly, my yard is too small for a compost bin...). Some roses and coreoposis are next in line for a mid summer cutting as is my cat mint, which has already sent up a mass of new blooms. Every year at this time it's a bit of struggle as a gardener because the gorgeous May and June blooms have come and gone and I am challenged to find more plants that bloom later in the year. So, if you too are feeling like the gardening season is on its way out, take a second look and see what you can deadhead and spruce up to encourage a second set of blooms!

The Good and the Bad

I'm just back from a very hot and enjoyable week at the lake. I checked on my garden on Tuesday and watered pots because the weather was so unseasonably hot and dry and I didn't want anything to die of thirst. I looked through my perennial beds and everything seemed to be doing well. I arrived home from the lake yesterday afternoon and went into my gardens to see what needed to be done. To my dismay, Japanese Beetles have nearly eaten 4 of my new rose bushes! I picked off every one I could find and killed it and then started to look at plants close by. There were a few on neighboring plants, so I killed those as well. My first thought was to get out the spray, so I grabbed it from the basement and started to read the directions. The bottle said 'very highly toxic to bees'. Well, my garden is full of bees and other pollinators, so I decided not to spray. Now I'm looking for an organic alternative. In the mean time, I started to look at other plants to see if the infestation was anywhere else in my garden and my other plants, as of today are free of Japanese Beetles. While I am sad about my roses, I am very happy to find butterflies feeding on my pink Coneflower at the other end of my garden! Something good always comes with the bad and I'm so happy about the butterflies, that I can almost forget about the Japanese Beetles.

Delightful Delphiniums

My dad always loved delphiniums. He always grew them and always was so excited when they bloomed each year. I'd always look at them in the garden and think "they are pretty, but...". Well now that I have my own garden and planted delphiniums last year, I finally understand why my father loved them so much! Not only are they unusual with their very powerful flower spike, but they do not resemble many other flowers in the garden. Also, the colors of delphiniums are outrageous! I have one that is deep purple with white centers and another one that is the color of a cloudless sky. It's such a spectacular color that I sometimes just stand and stare at the flower and think about what a true blue it is. Delphiniums are easy to grow and really blend into any flower bed. I had no idea what color my flowers would be when I bought them as a small 4 pack last year. I have dark purple, sky blue, white and a lighter purple. They are the kind of flower that people on the street stop and stare at, then ask you what it is. Those are the kind of flowers I love to have and thanks to my dad, now I see why their beauty is so amazing.

Giant Ferns

My garden is just full of suprises this year. Sometimes I think it is a little magic coming from my dad and sometimes I think it is the unusual weather we have had this whole year. Along the one side of my house, I have ferns growing. In past years these ferns grew about 1 foot high and some years they really looked like they were just going to die out and not come back. They have never made much of a splash but because of where they are, I have always just left them alone because they were not in the way and provided some nice fill along a picket fence I share with my neighbor. This year, for reasons unknown, the ferns have grown at least 4 1/2 feet tall and have all but taken over the space where I keep my grill. It is exciting to see these ferns grow and when I'm in this part of my garden, I feel like I'm in the movie Jurassic Park and am wandering with the dinosaurs! I guess ignoring plants sometimes is the best thing you can do for them!

What a difference 10 days makes!

Recently I went on vacation for 10 days and during that time, the weather here at home was sunny and warm. Much to my surprise when I arrived home on Memorial Day, my garden looked like someone had fed it Miracle Grow while I was gone! It is an explosion of plants and colors and flowers and surprises me every day. For whatever reason, my garden this year is larger, fuller and more jungle like than it has ever been. I wonder if losing the large tree in my yard 2 years ago has a lot to do with it. Even the ferns that are on the more shady side of my house are chest high this year. These ferns were here when I moved in and have never really done much and a few years I thought they were almost dead. They are gorgeous and have about taken over the little spot where I keep my grill. Is it global warming, a short winter followed by an early and warm spring or just the garden gods smiling down on my little plot in Western NY? I will never know but the results are nothing less than spectacular!