Spring Garden Inventory

Since it's suddenly spring, I spent a few minutes on Saturday wandering about my gardens and assessing what's up.

The tulips are appearing, which isn't any real surprise:

Snowdrops are out in the lawn:

And hooray!  The peonies are starting to push up.

I love peonies with abandon, and was no end of delighted to discover them in my gardens when we first moved in.  I highly recommend buying a house in winter, so that whatever emerges in the gardens in spring is a complete surprise.  It was like a daily and weekly treasure hunt.  Of course, it helped that someone who lived here before us was an avid gardener, and had selected a variety of hearty and beautiful plants that survived years of neglect with little ill effect.

The bear's breeches appears to have survived and is already emerging in a few spots.

It had a rough time last summer, as we transplanted it from my boss's garden rather late and didn't water it enough when we went on vacation.  I wasn't entirely sure it would make it, but thus far it appears healthy.  I hope it isn't up too early and in for a rude awakening should the weather turn cold again.

Tucker is back to rolling luxuriously in sunny patches of dirt, which is a sure sign of spring:

I was surprised to see that my kale actually survived the winter and is shooting up healthy new growth.  I had no idea the stuff was that hearty.  Looks like we may have really early spring greens from the garden this year, unless it turns out that it's bitter or something from having overwintered.

And oh, great delight!  As I wandered through my yard I heard my first red winged blackbird of spring.  So often I think the only purpose of winter is to make spring seem so much more wonderful for its contrast!