Spring Emerges--by Leaps and Bounds!

With the warm temperatures this week, spring has not so much been emerging as it has been bursting! Early tulips, daffodils, a sore back, and the lawn-and-leaf bags* lined up on my treelawn are the usual first harbingers of spring in my garden.  But as I worked around the yard today, I noticed quite a few signs of "mid spring" making themselves known.  Here's an assortment:

Blooms on my peach tree

Buds on one of the currants

The pretty, purplish stems of lovage as it first makes its appearance

Cherry buds

Cherry blossoms

Apple buds, with a pretty shadow of the espaliered plant on the fence behind

Lonicera sempervirens showing off its first few flower buds

Newly emerging tree peony leaves

Sedum, cheerfully peeking out from a pocket in a strawberry jar

Most of these photos were taken as I weeded and mulched yesterday.  I also pulled out a great many plants--details on that will be posted later--in an effort to simplify my design.  And I started on my spring plantings of carrots, onions, shallots, lettuces and the like.  

Of course, there is still more to be done.  I plan to put in a little bit of an edging wall in the front yard, to make the garden there look a little more finished.  (The aforementioned neighbors should like that!)  In late May, the tomatoes, beans, peppers, eggplants and other heat-loving crops will need to be put in as well.  But for now, it's enough to appreciate all of the fresh faces of spring.  Happy spring gardening to all!

*Yes, I still compost.  However, I've learned from experience that certain things--some ornamental grasses, all woody plants, and perennial weeds--just do not break down enough in my little compost bins.  (And those pyracantha branches have scratched me up enough the first time around, so I see no reason to let their half-decayed thorns stab my fingers while I spread finished compost.)  The city's compost piles are big enough to heat them all up and turn them into black gold, however, so they end up on the curb in the spring.