gardening: observing, planning, designing, and editing
Looking at the bluebell photographs that I never got around to posting last year, two things stick out: this year’s bluebells came up over two weeks earlier than last year, and they did not get nibbled by ravenous rabbits. There are limits to what they will eat after all.
A week ago Saturday, on May 20, I helped sort plants purchased through the Washtenaw County Water Resources Office by people who were putting together rain gardens—like me. The advantage of helping out was that I got to take my order home that day instead of the following one—one more day to plant!
I planted them Sunday. I had done a partial planting last fall, so the plants I picked up just about completed the garden, with the last pieces coming from transplants from other spots in the yard.
We had better start with a schematic. You cannot see from one end to the other due to the redbud, so this will keep you oriented.
The bluebells have reached that awkward stage; the flowers are just about gone, but the plants haven’t keeled over. They are not at their most attractive, although from the street, they are back to being an amorphous blob of green instead of a haze of blue by the back fence. There are hostas and arrow-leaved asters among the bluebells, so that when the bluebells finally do keel over, they will be hidden. It’s a little hard to believe right now.
It’s been just a few chilly, rainy days since my previous post on spring ephemera, and the changes are dramatic. Yesterday brought wet snowflakes that melted on contact; I’m hoping that was our April snowstorm. We did not get the 1–3 inches that the meteorologist postulated, but the ground is quite soggy. There will be no plant rearranging this weekend. Revisiting the same plant species as in the previous post, I find bigger plants and lots of flower buds. Continue reading “Spring Ephemera Are Changing Rapidly”