It was a long, hard winter. I have never been as ready for the season to change as I have been the last couple of months.
Now, being Ohio, we've got monsoon weather which will eventually give way to suffocating humidity and blistering sun, but that's ok. I have a closet full of dresses to wear and a big tube of SPF 85. (I'm Irish) I will take that over cabin fever-winter-depression any day. (Although I did break my fave sunglasses, I can always get a new pair.)
We bought our house in June, 2008 ( I was 21 go me ;) and the yard had been overgrown and ignored for at least 5 yrs, and probably longer. In fact the house sat empty for a few years. Our lawn was less grass, and more crabgrass and dandelions. I don't mind dandelions, but I am a barefoot hippie in my own yard and crabgrass hurts.
So anyway, now that we've got most of our plants healthy, and our lawn about 60% grass, I'm ready to finally use my yard (with my hubby! who lived here approximately 4 months before he deployed) I've kept an eye on the yard the past couple of springs, and I finally know when good weather is upon us:
Yes, I need to rake.
These bushes (no idea what they are) run along the length of the front of my yard. They explode in bright yellow for about a week and a half before they turn green. This is my first sign that winter is over
I need to rake some more, yes. We planted this pink thing last year and it never bloomed, but it surprised me a couple days ago and shot up out of nowhere.
It made me really happy, because we were under quite a few inches of snow for the last 4+ months and I was so tired (still am) of a monochrome landscape. All gray or all white is boring and mind numbing. Just this morning I found these little purple flowers popping up in all my clumps (for lack of a better word) of Ivy.
So, now you know that all it takes to put a smile on my face is a little bit of color
ahh you've got some gorgeous flowers in your backyard!
ReplyDeleteThe yellow bushes are Forsythia. When it blooms, it's time to fertilize the yard and put corn gluten or a weed killer down to prevent crabgrass and other weeds. The pink flower is a spring blooming bulb called Hyacinth. You can get more of them to plant in the fall. Give it a little bone meal once the flowers dies. The leaves will be green for a while before they die. The bulb will sprout again next spring. The fall is also time to plant other bulbs like daffodils and tulips. The little purple flowers look like Periwinkle or Vinca. This is a vining ground cover like ivy.
ReplyDeleteI know just how you feel! This winter was sooo long. And it seems like every year I forget that spring brings massive winds and tornado weather with it too, but oh well...at least it's not cold anymore:)
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