unfortunately it was overcast this morning when i took the photos, and i’m working on my laptop on the couch with a dog in my lap - otherwise i’d tweak the colors for more punch. but it’s a pretty accurate representation of what’s happening in the yard these days…

hellebore blossom Close	hellebore
camellia Close	camellia
heirloom snowdrop Close	snowdrop
azalea budding Close	azalea budding
tulip Close	tulip

earlier this spring i finished the basic bricking of the 3 terraced beds in the front yard. 2-3 weeks ago we planted:

5 strawberry plants (several are blooming, and one has a little green strawberry)
12 tomato plants (2 lemon boy, 2 santa f1, 2 sweet 100s, 2 patio, and 4 yellow pear)
4 pepper plants (1 super chili - 4 fruit already, 1 caribbean red hot, 1 sweet banana and 1 golden bell)

in addition, due to some injudicious composting, we have about 7 pumpkin plants (several have set blossoms) and a plethora of small gourd plants erupting from the beds. and a lone resurrected persimmon tomato plant from an unfortunate pre-cold-snap planting that left a whole slew of tomato and cucumber plants dead.

i put herb balls in the edge of one of the beds, but they don’t seem to be doing very well. i also put 3 of the balls (thyme, chives and parsley) in a shallow pot next to the bed; those have germinated and seem to be doing well.
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¹ that’s what a perpetually snarky and depressed friend called it. needless to say, he’s not gettin’ any tomatoes, if we should grow any.

i used to scoff at the utility of camera phones. until i started taking surreptitious photographs of other people’s shrubbery. alas, merrifield doesn’t seem to carry this variety. *sigh*

the azaleas are looking like wet toilet paper now, so here are some cousins: be-yoo-tee-ful rhododendri.

my mother gave me a bunch of monarda, some rudbeckia (the maryland state flower, doncha know), a pot of vinca, a tangle of autumn clematis and one magnolia. oh, and five strawberry plants.

i gave her pulmonaria “spilled milk.” (lungwort! for mother’s day! brilliant!)

it was a good mother’s day.

(yesterday’s acquisitions: nasturtiums, osteospermum, petunias, snapdragons, and one of my favorite shade plants, bleeding heart.)