Can this really be Spring?

We've only just had the equinox and already it's acting like Spring.  The trees are leafed out, the dogwoods are blooming, the daffodils have come and gone, the grass is growing.  It seems way too early for all these things to be happening.  We didn't get much of a winter.  A few really crazy cold days but mostly not bad.  I don't like the cold so I don't mind.

This was a quick tour of the yard this afternoon.

Vinca major or periwinkle

Money plant

Lorapetalum.  A large open shrub with purple foliage and these fringy flowers .

My Bloodgood Japanese maple.  I love this tree.  It was planted  years ago and has loved the spot I put it in from the very beginning.

Native red honeysuckle growing up a trellis

Thrift or creeping phlox.  Pale blue flowers.

The dogwoods in the backyard.  White clouds everywhere.

So that's the tour for today.  Stay tuned for more as they come along.

Blustery, sunny day in NE GA

I just love pansies

Weeping cherry tree

March went out like a lion instead of a lamb this year.  We had a return of cold, wet weather last week.  Just in case we forgot how much we were tired of it.  The wind is blowing today constantly at 10-20mph and gusting even more.  I put on my coat and hat and went out to cut grass.  Now my head feels like it''s going to explode.  I just had to get outside, though.  The yard was calling to me.

Columbine from some seeds I scattered
a couple of years ago.  I'm surprised they do as well
as they do.

Old fashioned bearded iris



More things are blooming, now.  The old fashioned bearded iris are blooming.  These are transplants from another house we lived in when we first got married.  The house was about 100 years old and had lots of old plants around the yard.  When we moved to the new house 15 years ago, I had to bring everything with me. Old fashioned purple and white iris, winter honeysuckle, forsythia, spirea, bulbs.  I brought everything! My garden here started out just to be a holding bed but soon took on a life of its own. It keeps telling me things to do and I happily comply. I've put in 2 little ponds, one with a creek, an arbor my son's welding class made for me when he was in high school, climbing roses on anything that will hold them and more plants than I care to remember. Many have not survived the deer, drought, late freezes, whatever but the ones that have are very happy.

Money plant loves the shade of
the oak trees

Creeping phlox growing on the driveway
banks

French hyacinths

Spring is happening!!

I've been gone 6 days helping my sister after her back surgery and was so happy to see all the things starting to bloom in the yard.  The forsythia and spirea are in full bloom, daffodils are everywhere, the red bud tree buds are swelling, new growth on the Louisiana iris, roses and clematis.  I just walked around the yard smiling.

baby's breath spirea

forsythia

forsythia

daffodils and pink flamingo

Today is Spring ahead so another hour of light to get more things done.  Although, all the spring forward and fall back stuff messes with my head and sense of time. I know it's just an hour but it seems it takes me weeks to get back in sync with the world.

I'll be unloading my kiln hopefully later today for glazing tomorrow.  I still have another kiln load waiting to go in for bisque firing later this week.  Lots of flat stuff that takes up a lot of room on the shelves.

hellebores

The bog blog

So I'm about to go crazy with this winter weather.  It's been cold, wet, snowy, icy, cold, cold, cold.  There is a silver lining, though.  All this wet is great for the soil and the plants.  We've had some pretty severe droughts here in NE Ga so we hate to complain about the wetness.  Since the ground is so soft, I thought I would start a bog garden.  I already have a couple of little ponds in the garden but needed a place to move some plants to that don't have to be in water.  Soooo, I thought bog! 

My appaloosa, George!

I'm using an old feed tub like this one. It's hard to tell in this picture but it's about 27" dia. and 10 " deep.  I dug the hole a couple of weeks ago when we had a day that above 50 degrees. I got it into place and I've started putting some rocks around it. We grow a lot of rocks around here.  Later this winter, I'll start moving some plants to be around the outside and then filling in the tub with dirt and water to make the bog.  I'm really excited about how it will turn out.  Of course, I don't really know how it will turn out.  That's what's fun about the garden.  It really does what it wants to do.

Untouched ground 

Feed tub in place

 I collected more rocks today and will start putting them around it tomorrow and I'll be posting the bog progress all spring and summer.