the state of the garden

During April vacation we swept, tidied, raked and did a bit of weeding in our wee Sea Kettle garden. A flat of pansies and alyssum now fill window boxes and porch pots and of course the forsythia is in full and glorious bloom.

  

Many of last year's plantings are coming back up, which is always a nice surprise and isn't always been the case. During our first couple of years I kept giving in to those tempting sun loving plants (lupinescoughcough), hoping that they just would ignore the fact that our entire garden is shaded by a large maple tree.  Unfortunately they weren't fooled in the least and all died in quick succession; fortunately, I smartened up and started buying appropriate plants! (By the way, I blame the lupine obsession on my favorite childhood book "Miss Ruphius"..just trying to make the world a more beautiful place!)

Also, Brian's been wanting to add a border of some sort to our small fire pit/charcoal grill. He noticed a pile of bricks that have been sitting in our neighbor's driveway for years, so he asked the guy if he was interested in selling a few. He was happy to oblige and a couple hours later, we had ourselves a beautiful brick border. We're looking forward to many warm summer nights around the fire and of course, oodles of s'mores.

We have a few more things on our garden to-do list, not the least of which is whitewashing the fence that surrounds our patio. It's a big move, but we're hoping it works out the way we're imagining!

How does YOUR garden grow?