A Maryland Country Garden

I'm Back Once Again

Once again, long time no blog, but here I am again. Getting my kitchen garden into gear, the pool garden into some semblence of order, the front garden weeded, and the non-existent crescent garden started. I started seeds this season: chard, snap peas, snapdragons, hollyhocks, sweet peas and still need to start cosmos and blackberry lilies. Have 2 climbing roses to plant still: Lady Banks yellow and Crépuscule. Both are "old roses". I need to order or buy some tomato plants, plant my pole and fillet beans, and plant some dahlias and lilies I got at Costco. Lots and lots to do. 

Have a bluebird family this spring too. Three of four eggs have hatched. I'm trying a new kind of house and so far, it seems to work the best of any yet. 

 

Bluebirds and More Bluebirds

I was quite excited a few weeks ago when I checked my bluebird house at night with a flashlight and saw through the entrance some blue feathers.  So the next day I opened it and there were 5 tiny, perfect light blue eggs.  I'd put up this house last year but the house sparrows got to it first.  I attached clear fishing lines to it (said to deter house sparrows) but I think it was too late as they'd already gotten interested in the house.  But so far, this season, everything is going fine.  I only hope all doesn't end in tragedy with baby bluebirds pecked to death by sparrows.  That happened many years ago and so I had stopped trying to make a home for bluebirds.  But maybe this year I (and the bluebirds) will finally get lucky.  I sure hope so.  No sign of house sparrows around the box at all.  Keep your fingers crossed.  

Today I opened the house and saw the newly-hatched chicks.

 

Daffodil Season

It's daffodil season and the hundred or so daffodil bulbs I planted several years ago are all coming up.  I planted two orders of the naturalizing mixture from White Flower Farm over two seasons and was quite pleased with the varieties I got:  all different types, from split cups to pink cups to poet's narcissi. 

There is no easier flower to plant and maintain--the deer don't eat them and all I have to do is make sure I let the leaves yellow before I cut them down.  I have them planted further away from the house, so I don't mind that the grass around them has to get long for a while.  By the middle of June, I can mow the whole area. 

This one here is Ice Follies.  The yellow cup fades over time and turns white.

 

And here is my "new" dog, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Puck, posing for a picture among the flowers:

More daffodils: