I'm turning into a Gardenista

I never knew having my very own, 'do what you want' garden could be so satisfying on so many levels. I spent years helping others, especially my aunt before she died; with their gardens, did small gardens in homes we had on short term rental & did a front garden when I worked as a super. But never was I ever given a free hand the way I have been with my current efforts.

I spent a time of sweat & blisters last summer digging, weeding, adding proper soil, ahem - 'expanding' the border inch by sneaky inch, edging, planting, planning & dreaming.

I was completely pathetic this winter. I read loads of garden porn. I worried it was too cold, too warm - might get frost heave! - too wet, snow cover disappearing too soon. My plants would die on me, never coming up to see the light of day & I would be exposed as a complete horticultural wanna be, an abject failure.

By the end of March, the snow was gone & I must have 'inspected' my border 8-10 times a day.I was desperately looking for ANY signs of life. Reason told me no plant with half a brain was going to show a speck of green above the surface while it was still well below freezing. But hope lives on in the face of anxiety & increasing desperation. Alas, my border remained barren although daily, every inch of it was inspected at an almost microscopic level. Reason? Logic? Those are for non-gardeners.

One sunny & almost warm afternoon in early April I scared 4 years life off my SO giving a shriek of delight - THERE WAS SOMETHING GREEN THERE!!! Turns out it was a weed BUT... if a weed will grow, maybe some of my plants survived? Please, oh Great Garden Gawds?

Nature knows best & as the days passed, signs of life DID appear. My hepatics, all 4 clumps of it budded & bloomed. I highly recommond this little wildling. It gave me almost a solid month of sweet little flowers & the leaves, which come out after the flowers, are pretty.They also don't mind later, being shaded out by more robust garden plants. My bloodroot was next, coming up along with bleeding hearts, heucheras & geraniums. Before I knew it, everything was bursting out of the ground, in some cases, literally by the hour.

We tend to cool springs here which I like because flowers last longer. Right now, I don't have as much flowering as I will in another month but plants in bloom currently include bleeding heart, primrose, mossy saxifrage, creeping phlox, violas of all sorts, lamium, gerenium, lungwort, perennial alyssum, trilliums, vinca minor & some pinks I bought.

Everything else is bursting out of the ground & frankly, I probably badly over planted.I expect in another month or, I'll barely be able to see any soil. My geraniums are just starting so they're yet to really put on a show. Columbines are budding & various sedums will look lovely next month. Astilbes still have a gorgeous, bronzy sheen to new leaves. Veronicas, coreopsis, hostas, more pinks, sea thrift & day lilies are all getting fat & showing promise. My seeds of various poppies & nemophila are finally coming up & in another week or two, I'll plant out my convulvulus. Scabious is budding too & I will have obedient plant, helenium, lobelia & mums late in the summer.

I'm already wondering though, if I'll be as anxious next spring?Probably -there's always something to curse about the winter & what it can do to a garden.