It came early in my part of the world. A full two weeks. Generally I earmark the last weekend in April for planting. But the weather—long range forecast—said start now! My tulip magnolia bloomed for St. Patrick’s Day.
Crazy.
My ornamental cherry trees have just bloomed off, and it’s April!
So BW and I took a Friday, and hit the nursery. Oh, boy! Everything looks so pretty, so ready. Of the scents, the textures, the colors! We, of course, filled the bed of the truck as always. In fact, BW had a big tub in there, and plants went in that, too. So many pretties.
He had other things to do elsewhere after we got home, so we unloaded, I set out, changed my mind, set out another way. Then I started digging.
We have a new tool. It’s called a Rotoshovel, but I call it Magic! It’s like a big battery operated auger, just press the button, and you have a hole in seconds. I’m in love. I couldn’t have done so much so quickly or easily without it.
By the time BW got home, I had a ton in already, then together we put in more. Much more than I’d assumed we’d do in a day.
So, so satisfying. So, so pretty. I wanted heliotrope and Dragon Wing begonias, but the nursery wanted at least another week for those in their growing house.
No problem. I know where they’re going, and can save that space.
The next day, I filled pots. Lots and lots of pots, all before the family arrived to celebrate Logan’s 20th (!!!) birthday. He’d requested flank steak—that’s Grandda’s deal. I did the sides, and make the requested chocolate chip cookies as he likes them better than cake.
A fun time for all, with lots of Griffin/Nana play in there.
Sunday, I sent Kat and Jason home with a ton of Black-Eyed Susans I’d had to dig up, and some Solomon’s Seal that wanted to migrate where it didn’t belong.
We had rain almost every day the following week, and the new plants loved it.
Then today, with the heliotrope and dragon wings, and the dozen day lilies I asked BW to add to the list, I got on it.
Now everything’s in its place, and looking happy.
So far, Milo isn’t pulling a Parker and digging up plants. We hope that holds.
Oh, last weekend we kept hearing a Barred Owl in the middle of the day. We ended up following the call, and spotted him—BIG bird—in a tree near the house. We hear owls all the time, but we’ve never spotted one so close to the house. Just up there, calling for a mate.
Since we haven’t heard or seen him this week, I hope he found his girl and moved into her place.
Now, a week after that initial planting, everything looks happy. Things are budded up or already blooming. Filling in and filling out.
Nothing’s quite as happy or gratifying for me as a garden with happy, healthy flowers. It’s worth every bit of the time and effort as now I walk around, or just look out a window, and see that color and life.
If spring hasn’t sprung early for you, I hope it comes soon!
Nora
Unfortunately we had snow flakes yesterday. My garden wants to grow but Mother Nature is being very temperamental. Hopefully soon spring will stay fir us in Michigan.
Everything looks lovely. Logan’s 20 omg
I love spring, it’s time to start my vegetable garden . Plant the flowers & put out the hummingbird feeder.❤️
It’s the beginning of another of your glorious gardens. Thanks so much for sharing your labor of love!
I look forward the spring garden posts every year. Love your gardens. Your planters are always my favorite.
I love your updates! I live in an apartment and mostly have so I live through you building your beautiful garden.
We’ve had snow. Plus, where we live, water is restricted, so no gardens unless you truck in water. And then there are the deer. I’m admiring yours and all your work, although if we did have a garden, the Hubster would want to plant vegetables, not flowers.
So pretty…I’m jealous. Here where I live in Pa it was warm but now we’re in a chilly stretch all week. Frost possible just about every night. My pansies will do fine and the perennials but I’m covering a couple pots that I planted dahlias in.
I always love seeing your flower garden! You give me some ideas to try something different. Unfortunately, I will have to wait until just before Mother’s Day… had a few snowflakes here in western New York State today! And the never-ending rain has half of my backyard with standing water. Sigh…. our time will come and I hope I can get out to the garden center to see what they have! Enjoy! Hope the deer stay away (they ate the just budding tulips here, darn them)!
Everything looks spectacular!
My ornamental Cherry is in full bloom…the earliest that I can remember…and I am hoping and wishing and praying we do NOT get a sudden burst of snow. One year it snowed around Mother’s Day which traumatized my wizened soul!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOGAN!!!
Your garden looks wonderful. We finally had some sunshine here in Scotland. I’ll be tackling my garden soon. I can’t believe Logan is 20!
Heard a barred owl last night as I was sitting outside enjoying the chiminea – it was eerie hearing that call in the dark!
Garden looks lovely – starting on mine next weekend!
We’ve had cold temps and snow again in Colorado. After living in Maryland for nine years coming back to Colorado gardening has been tough. Last year we had so many hail storms everything was destroyed. I’m hoping for a little better weather this year. In the meantime, a Costco size of Johnny Jump Ups is waiting in the garage to get planted. Happy Spring !
In Pa. It is still having cold night and some during the day this week so I can’t go for my flowers yet. Hopefully next week it will start warming up so I can get mine. Everything looks beautiful Nora! Happy Spring!!
Your gardens look so pretty. Enjoy seeing them. Wish I had green thumb but alas no. Happy Birthday Logan. 🎶
Now wonderful seeing all the planting and the terraces they will look stunning, hard was hard work, not sure of the tool Nora was talking about…It would be nice to see it all again in full bloom.
I’ve popped in some tomato plants in the green house with some sweet and hot chillies in pots…taken my Canna’s out the green house ready to grow. Spring just makes you feel so much better.
Thank you Nora for sharing, looking forward to that every year.
Thanks Laura for posting…
Beautiful! And can’t believe Logan is 20! I remember him as a newborn at the signing!
Happy birthday to him. We’re enjoying the warmer weather here in Illinois. Sadly the lilacs have bloomed almost a month early they’re usually bloom right before my birthday which is May 15th so it’s extra early this year. I’d say if you’d like peonies come by and take the ones are in my backyard I’m not a peony type of girl but they always always come back every year. The main person in our family that’s the gardener is my mother-in-law which I think will be a very big stress reliever as we lost my father-in-law about a month and a half ago. I know she’s looking forward to getting into her garden.
Sympathies on your loss & yes, if she loves to garden, getting out there & working in the soil will be a great help. It did me after the loss of my folks.
and yes, the lilacs are in full bloom here in SW Ohio, already! Redbuds are done along with most of the daffodils; but last night, we had frost; also in the forecast for Thursday morning. Sure hope it doesn’t wipe out the orchards again this year!
We had a light snow in MN after a weekend in the 70’s , but now we’re all in garden mode. Got my onion sets, peas and cabbage in the raised beds. Have a whole new space to play with and I’m looking forward to some serious dirt time! So glad you got to recharge in one of your happy places😀
Aww, everything looks so beautiful. I love day lilies because they’re practically indestructible. We just moved our Easter hydrangea to our little patch of green in back of our house. Here’s hoping it takes root, again, indestructible. Enjoy all your good work. Happy spring. Celebrate a new run around the sun to Logan!
Stephanie
#professionalromancefan
Nora, as always your flowers are beautiful. How fun each year it is to see your hard work. Thanks for sharing with us again. And Happy 20th Birthday to Logan!
I love your garden and how much fun you have planting new plants and flowers every Spring! Our spring here has had a bit of a sputtering start. A couple warm days, the the cold and rain returns, then we have more warm days; a slight chance of rain next weekend. I call it wishy-washy weather.
I can’t believe Logan is 20! Happy birthday, Logan! I liked his birthday dinner; one that I wouldn’t mind having for my birthday. We went to Jersey Mike’s for my birthday (they’re new in town for us). And this year because I am over 70, I had to do the written test to renew my driver’s license; took me two tries to pass.
Keep smiling and enjoy the beautiful Spring!
Our Spring is struggling. After a few days of 80 degrees, we plunged back down to 50, with frost warnings from midnight to 8:00 for several days. I always follow my grandparents’ advice and plant mother’s day weekend. Then I’m usually safe! Yours are beautiful!
Such a fantastic growing area. I’m not a planter. I grew plants easy in Germany had many houseplants but seemed to kill all the American ones I tried at home.
Love seeing your garden, knowing ours will follow in a week or two or three (if it just warms up a bit). Got to get me a Rotoshovel!
Nora, your gardens are so beautiful! I’m a little slow in getting my flowers! Time for me to make a trip to the local nursery to get all my plants!
I recently saw Logan at the store and couldn’t believe how fast he grew up! WOW! Twenty years old! Such a handsome guy!
Beautiful, to early up here in Syracuse New York but soon.
Oh wow! So Lucky! And your walls!!! What fabulous backdrops. We still have snow and below freezing at night. We used to be able to plant Mother’s Day but global warming has moved it to Memorial Day. Ahh well it’s still beautiful and the trees are flowering and the tulips so I just cover things up at night and visit them in the morning.
Here in the wilds of Utah, my daffodils are STILL blooming! Never, in the 32+ years we’ve lived here, have they been so lovely for so long. And my guy repurposed the wood from an old deck we had at our duck club property and made me some delightful planter boxes. Now to just get my hands in the dirt to get them planted . . . I was glad to see your beautiful wings in your tier gardens. So pretty. Thanks for sharing.
Unfortunately here in Western NY we need to wait for frost and snow finally stops (possibly by Mother’s Day) since its still below freezing here at night some days. Your gardens look amazing!
Really beautiful happy spring
So pretty! I garden vicariously through you now, Nora, so I really appreciate all the pics and descriptions. You have a lovely and varied garden … and that water feature is *chef’s kiss*. Thanks for sharing, and happy gardening!
I love your gardens, especially all the rock walls and paths.
We had a frost last night (NC mtns), so I know it’s too early for annuals, but my perennials are doing well. Tulips and daffodils are finished. Iris have lots of buds and a few blooms so far. Hostas and day lilies are coming up, if the deer will leave them alone. My dogwood is about done. My redbuds are blooming. Creeping phlox is in full bloom. My azaleas are starting to bloom, but they look so funny because the deer ate about half of each plant this winter, but flowers are opening on the half they didn’t eat.
I’ll wait for mother’s day to get the veggie garden in and the annuals.
Everything looks so pretty!!! We’re still having frost in Ohio – so no planting yet – the prennials are doing fine and so much weeding to do!!! Between the rain and frost – not sure we’ll get to plant!!! So looking forward to it.
Love love love hearing about your spring garden and seeing what you’ve planted new – and literally had tears when you posted about Logan turning 20 as my Logan turns 20 in November… it just doesn’t seem possible (had lunch with him this weekend as i visited a friend near his college ) … i am going to the nursery tomorrow!!!! flowers here i come !!!
Your grounds look so beautiful! I love all the green and all the soon to be blooming flowers. I am in South Dakota and we are having beautiful weather, too, and I am loving it. Never know when we might get spring snow, though, so I am not holding my breath yet! Thanks for sharing!
I feel your pain as I’m next door in Montana. It’s so hard to be patient this time of year. Especially when you see posts like Nora’s. So jealous!
I love, love, love this! Just one more reason I love your books, especially when you create characters who love flowers and gardening as much as you do. Your post reminds me that I really need to post more on my Negligent Gardener blog. Here in Montana, Spring can be a mentally deranged heathen, bringing hope and then crushing those hopes in the next hour. I have so many seedlings waiting to get planted, I can’t wait! I’m so jealous of your early Spring!
Wonderful garden and a real pleasure to see. Thank you so much for sharing with us.
Here in Ireland we are having all four seasons in one. The sun was shining where I am very early this morning. Now I’m wrapped up against the cold and it’s raining heavy outside.
It looks amazing. thank you for sharing.
I have the same auger planting tool…a lifesaver at this point in life!
What a beautiful garden! We have an earlier spring in Alabama and it was lovely as usual. My cousins and I took a trip to your town of Boonsboro the first week of May and enjoyed the spring again. We visited Turn the Page bookstore and met the wonderful and helpful Anita there. We had a yummy lunch at the Italian restaurant. We were able to see the beautiful Inn. It has been a decades long dream to visit your town and it exceeded my expectations. The only thing that would have made it more special would have been to meet my favorite author! We missed the Girls Night Out by a week as I didn’t know about it. But I came home with lots of pictures and some jewelry from the bookstore to remind me of my visit!
Bought my wife a Rotoshovel for Mother’s Day. She loves it! Thank you for letting us know about it.
Love that you have native plants in your garden, too. Every year, we’re adding more to our yard. Lovely! Hope you share more pics once the garden is full and all blooms. Thanks for the peek!
Your garden looks beautiful. I just got home from my winter home in Naples and found that my daughter-in-law has planted a beautiful garden for me. Now if it warms a little I can take a new book out on the patio and spend my kind of afternoon (with you!) You live very close to me. My library is filled with your books (that is the ones I don’t have at my other house in Florida.)
Love reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MARY D
Beautiful happy plants! Enjoy! Happy 20th birthday to Logan!
I too “love” planting season! Visit all our local greenhouses looking for favorites and always interested in new plant discoveries that will fit with this years theme. :o)
Thank you so much for your time/talent and most of all for sharing your life with us!! You make life better just by being you.
I read this when you originally posted but wanted to come back and say thanks for singing the praises of the roboshovel! I bought one and just used it last weekend. Such a breeze to dig holes and get some lovely plants (coleus) in my front garden. ❤️