Spring Bulbs

The crocuses were blooming a week ago and I am finally getting pictures posted to have a record of how late they were this year.  Spring is definitely here, though freezing weather and possibly some stray snow has been forecast for tomorrow, so it is a little early for planting.  The birds are building nests and things are greening up.

One of my favorite flowers in the garden is this white daffodil, which opened yesterday.  It is ready for the first bees.  Yesterday I was cutting back ornamental grasses and a big bee surprised me by flying out of the center of the grass stalks.  Did I wake it up…?

Another white flower is this white crocus.  This is one of the earlier snow crocuses, I think.

By the time I wandered back into the garden this spring these tiny snow crocuses were pretty much finished blooming.

This later purple crocus seems more substantial.  I love the design on the petals.

Yellow crocuses come up through dragon’s blood sedum.

From the kitchen I can see the mini daffodils that have opened this week, cheering up a drab landscape.  Soon the viburnum bushes will make that area very shady, but this time of year it gets full sun.

Here is a close up of these cute little daffodils.

The standard daffodils are opening up around the yard, too.

Anemone.  Yesterday as I was cleaning up I noticed some leaves that I did not recognize.  Later I saw this cute flower above some of the same leaves and remembered that I planted some mixed color anemones last fall.  So far only the blue ones have bloomed. They are very tiny but a welcome addition to the garden.

Compare Five Winters in Chicago

It has been a long winter with snow again this morning.  I wondered how this winter compared to March of the past five winters so I went back in my archives to see what happened.  To see the complete posts you can look back in the archives.

2010

In 2010 we decided to dig up the sod by the patio and threw the sod both in the compost pile and in the easement.  We eventually also added the crabapple tree to this bed.  Since then we have expanded this bed to the right to double it and provide privacy for the patio.  There was no snow on the ground at this time. Though I think a little bit dusted the garden later in the month.  We were probably working in the garden a little too soon, but I must have had an itch to get going.

During that same week I received all but one of these plants for my pre-planned drought garden in the mail in the middle of March!  I potted them up and brought them in and out of the house for a while and then planted them in April, I think.  The lavender and sea holly didn’t survive in my garden, maybe due to the humidity here.

2011

On March 13, 2011 the crocuses were poking up through the ajuga.

2012

On March 13, 2012 my mini daffodils were blooming, so that was an early spring.

Crocuses were coming to the end of their bloom time.

2013

On March 9, 2013 it looks like a robin is working on crabapples that had fallen into the snow….

But by March 17, 2013 the crocuses had started to bloom in sunny spots.

2014

This year has the most snow on the ground of the five years.  There is ice under the snow so it is thawing very slowly, though warmer weather is expected this week.

I went looking to see if I could see if there were any bulbs poking up, and sure enough these crocuses were popping out of the snow on March 8th, so they should be blooming before too long!

Conclusion?  Even though we are behind when compared with the last years we are not that far behind.  As the snow starts to melt everything is ready, set to grow.

Plant Resurrections

Following last week’s Easter theme, it is fun to see green mounds and shoots pressing up out of the cold ground.  I have been planting more bulbs each year so that my garden is starting to look cheerier in the spring as I wait for the garden to green up.  If there is something blooming then I am not as impatient for the coming of the lush green of spring.

I love these dwarf daffodils!  Other daffodils are coming up and will be blooming soon, but these early ones are the most welcome.

I have two patches of these dwarf daffodils naturalizing by the back fence.  Later the goldenrod and viburnum will hide them as their leaves fade.

All the way across the yard I see the bright yellow daffodil blooms from the kitchen window.  I put water in the bird bath and took this picture this morning as a cardinal came for a drink.  The robins and sparrows actually line up on the railroad tie and in the oak tree for their turn in the bath.

With such a long winter the crocuses have been lasting a lot longer.  I love the detailed design in this purple crocus.

Another group of cheery crocuses dressed in their choir robes and singing joyfully!

Rhubarb shoots.  A very small start, but soon to come are the giant leaves and then maybe some strawberry rhubarb treats.

While in Wal-Mart I noticed a nine-pack of romaine plants.  I know it is early, but I put three in a container that I can bring inside if it freezes and put six in the ground.  I can always cover them on cold nights.  I am planning to grow a lot more lettuce this year, so I need to get started!

Back inside I grow a few house plants.  I almost killed this one, but then I must have done something right as it seems very happy now.  I love all the hair on the leaves and the pink stems and undersides of the leaves.

Cooking news:  Dan is back to cooking a lot of greens.  Some of the most nutrient dense greens are kale, collard greens, mustard greens, swiss chard, bok choy and watercress.  We bought a bunch of organic greens this week and Dan keeps trying new recipes to find out how to cook all of these in tasty ways.

Late Spring

Spring seems late this year.  Still, here it comes!  Happy Easter!

The yellow crocuses smile out of the brown earth.

Last week I planted this little “Duke” blueberry bush.  My hope is that this shrub and the little “Top Hat” blueberry in the pot in the ground will cross-pollinate to produce blueberries.

I enjoyed listening to the audiobook, Farm City, which I got from the library. I am not raising any animals in my yard for meat, but had a good time hearing her stories.

Bird houses:  In the last post I showed pictures of the two new bluebird houses we put up, which were supposed to be less attractive to sparrow.  Not so!  The sparrows have tried to move into both of these houses in the past two days.  I will keep clearing them out to see if we can get the attention of a bluebird, but I have not seen one for a while.

First Tiny Flowers

I did not mean to spend hours in the garden yesterday and today, but once I got outside to see what was happening I got SPRING FEVER!  I cut back some ornamental grasses and got rid of the sedum stalks.  Today I planted peas and onions outside and inside I planted more lettuce, and got some flower seeds started.

Last fall we planted a little vernal witch hazel shrub we got at Possibility Place.  I went out today to see if it was blooming and sure enough there were a few little confetti flowers.

vernal witch hazel – hamamelis vernalis

Purple crocus wait for the sun to open.

Yellow crocus.  These are the ones whose leaves emerged in January and then were covered with snow in February.  They came through beautifully.

I noticed the striped outer layer of the flowers for the first time today.  I love the little details!

Dan helped me to take down the old bird house and put up a Peterson bluebird house.  I think it is less attractive to sparrows.

Last week we put up a Gilbertson PVC bluebird house.  I am not sure I have it in the right location yet.  The blue feeder on the left has rehydrated mealy worms.  I am not sure that the birds are very impressed yet…

While posting this I was heartened by listening to Il Volo sing “Smile.”  Those three young Italian guys sing it so well!

Smile, though your heart is aching.

Smile even though it’s breaking.

When there are clouds in the sky you’ll get by.

If you smile through your fear and sorrow

Smile and maybe tomorrow

You’ll see the sun come shining through for you.

Snow White

This has been a crazy weather week.  I think it was up to 60 degrees F. on Tuesday or Wednesday and down to zero two days later with a – 15 F. wind chill.  The freezing rain that froze the locks on my car door finally turned to beautiful snow.

It looks like we got about two inches of snow.  Everything is covered with a clean, white blanket.

Hicksii yew.

Here are the crocus leaves that came up in January.  Will they bloom?  I hope so.

Here is the lettuce that I planted just one week ago.  It is looking very leggy. I have a light on it now, but have not left the light on during the day while I have been at work.

Moving to a healthy diet has had its challenges.  We feel like pioneers, along with others around the world, who are trying to get back to less processed food.  In order for Dan to stay off his Lipitor we have to be serious about this.  At the same time we want to enjoy the process and have fun with it.

Mild and Dry

It’s definitely winter.  By Monday night the temperature will be down to -4 degrees F.  Nevertheless, right now it is 41 degrees and going up to 45, which is pretty mild for mid-January.  There is no snow on the ground and we have not had measurable snow in Chicago since last March.

The crocuses have responded to the warm weather all over the yard, except on the north side of the house where there is no sun.  Dragon’s blood sedum in the background.

Another grouping of crocuses.  I might put some leaves around these to protect them from the coming sub-zero weather.

The rock moss does well in this weather.

I ordered tomato and pepper transplants from the seed savers exchange.  I have always just bought these seedlings locally, so we will see how this works.  I might have a little more variety, plus they are organic.

I ordered some seeds from the same catalog.  I might start growing lettuce inside soon in a sunny window.

Dots of light on a winter morning in the city.  The days are getting longer, though!

I have not written much recently, due to being under the weather with the flu, and there is not that much to write about.  We are drinking lots of warm fluids and soups and dreaming about sunny days.

Crocuses and Daffodils

It must have been 70 degrees today and it should be even warmer tomorrow. I took a walk in the Morton Arboretum today and saw a flowering fragrant viburnum with bees buzzing on it in a sheltered spot.  In my yard the crocuses have been blooming for a while, but really opened up on Sunday.

Purple crocuses in front of the house on Sunday.

This purple bloom along the east fence attracted a polinator.  The little flies are easily seen now.

These crocuses just opened on the north side of the house.

These miniature daffodils opened yesterday.  The color is so bright from the kitchen window.  The taller daffodils are coming out of the ground.

Our brown ceramic bird bath cracked over the winter so I picked up this cement one at Walmart.  With all the birds arriving I did not want to wait another day to put out a water source.  I am hoping for another pair of bluebirds.  I did see bluebirds on a walk at the Danada forest preserve the other day, so it may not be too early…

 I cut down some of the ornamental grasses recently and the birds in the neighborhood have been picking up bits of straw for their nests.

Compost update:  I started a new pile for the dry leaves that have been blowing into the yard on these windy days.  For the piles that have been frozen over the winter I gave them a good turn to mix up the dry bits with the soggy bits and threw in some more kitchen scraps along with some earthworms. Go earthworms!!

Winter Warmth

The weather has been amazingly mild this year.  Many days have been in the 40s.  Hopefully it has been cold enough to kill off weeds and diseases.  Here are some of the things growing in the middle of February.

 These crocus bulbs bloom on the south side of a log.

Daffodils and Liriope break through the ground on the north side of the house.

The strawberries are spreading vigorously now.

At the base of all the sedum, the new rosette are growing.

Rock Moss grows on the east side of the house.  Last summer, just after Dan finished tarring the garage roof, we had a strong storm and the tar splattered off the roof onto the rocks below.  We may need to get some more rocks to replace these…  Today we visited Home Depot and made an appointment to have a roof specialist visit us to talk about re-roofing next summer.  We need to get several quotes.  That, and college costs, will cost money, so I am reminding myself to try to be cost conscious in the garden this year.  I’ll start planting seeds indoors in a month or so, as that always costs less than buying plants.  I think I have decided to buy a native American Plum tree from Possibility Place in April.

The very beginning of spring

Today was supposed to be thunderstorms, but they never came, so I got out and cut down all the ornamental grasses from last year and generally cleaned some of the old stalks up so I can watch the new plants emerging.  It reached 70 degrees today and everything was growing.  I saw several different species of birds this evening.

These crocuses have been mostly closed over the past few weeks, but completely opened up with the heat today.

These miniature daffodils open earlier than my other daffodils, which are sticking up around the garden.  I love the cheery color!

One of the first things to come to life after the snow is the rock moss.  I did not plant it here, but it seems to like the environment.

This is the first robin I have seen splashing in the bird bath.  I put the other bird bath out today, too.  On the left you can see the bud ready to burst on the lilac.