My Spring Perennial Garden

With summer only a few days away, I thought I'd better get around to posting my spring garden!  Oh, the life of the gardener!  We're always too busy working in a garden to find much time to enjoy it, let alone take photos and blog about it.

Because this post is so photo heavy, I will come back later with photos and stories of my vegetable garden.  Speaking of the vegetable garden,  we are experiencing a terrible drought right now.  It hasn't rained a single drop in over a month.  Everyone is starting to really get worried.  I don't water the perennials ever, but I do have to water my vegetable garden which takes up a lot of time everyday and cuts into other things I need to do in the garden.

Yet even without rain, the perennial garden is looking beautiful.  There is only now a few signs this drought has taken upon them;  mostly in raised bed areas.  Prayerfully, we will get rain soon!  Now, onto the garden tour shall we?

                                                  Daffodils and Crocus

 April starts the season with daffodils and crocus. We did get a huge snowstorm right when the daffodils bloomed.  The daffodils survived the snowstorm, but got all knocked over with the heaviness of the snow.  Eventually though they straightened themselves out and looked beautiful again.

I promise you, I had more than one loan crocus bloom in my yard. 😂. It's just that this crocus bloom was very special to me this year because we had a very long winter and everyone was getting pretty depressed that spring was never going to come, and then one day, I saw this little guy, and well, he gave me a lot of hope that spring was near!

                                    Tulips

Onto May, when the tulips bloom!  This year's tulip blooms weren't that spectacular, as the deer ate a lot of them, but they did leave me a few to enjoy!

                          Spring Ground Covers

I have such a love/hate relationship with the ground cover lamium.  It is so beautiful, yet so invasive.  No matter how many times I rip it out, it takes over again so quickly and sprouts up everywhere.  But it is a beauty, especially in spring when not much else is in bloom.  I love the contrast of the lamium with the chartreuse sedum and yellow flowered ivy ground cover (also very invasive).

Cat Mint is also an abundant ground cover in my garden.  This guy seeds everywhere, including rock walls as pictured here;  but it sure is pretty and the bees love it!

This next ground cover is pretty but has been a nightmare of mine for years (I'm really not making a good case for ground covers in this post, am I?  😂). It is probably the most aggressive ground cover I've ever grown.  I planted just a few plants on a dry hillside and it took over.  Now you might think that's great, but  weeds still get in and it's hard to dig out weeds in a thick ground cover.  So I have been diligently removing this ground cover from the hillside for the past three years and replacing it with Hosta.  I only have one or two sections left to go!

The name of this plant, if you want an aggressive ground cover that will grow anywhere, is "Herman's Pride Yellow Archangel Lamiastrum".  I have it growing in dry shade, and it's still super aggressive. 

Lily of the Valley with Hosta in the background.

                                      Bleeding Hearts

My shady property is loaded with these self-seeding bleeding hearts in both pink and white.

                                  Lilacs

I didn't have the greatest lilac season this year;  probably due to the late spring snowstorm, but a couple of my bushes did bloom sporadically.

                                      Hosta 

I love the way hosta looks early in the season when the buds are just pushing through the ground, before heat and slugs destroy their leaves.  This blue hosta looks gorgeous when contrasted with the plum tree and various ground covers.
                                   Viburnum

Vibernum bush in background with Goatsbeard and blue Hosta in foreground.

  

   

               Ornamental Onion

                                       Iris

Iris with Columbine Siberian Iris

Cushion Spurge mixed with hosta and iris.

                     Dames Rocket

I had such a good crop of Dames Rocket.  It's a biennial and seeds wherever it wants to.  I just let it grow where it wants because I know when it's done blooming it will die anyway.

                                 Columbine

                                      Peonies

Peonies, Iris, and Dames Rocket

White Wild Geranium in foreground with peony and iris in background

Pink Argyranthemum in foreground with peony and iris in background.

                                      Poppy

                                    Foxglove

I hope you enjoyed my spring garden tour.  I will be back next week with a tour of my vegetable garden.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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