Spring Arrives

A rainbow after the rain.

I've been neglecting my blogging for the past few weeks in favor of working on my garden. Spring has finally arrived in Front Royal, bringing its usual cycle of beauty. The cherry tree in front is blooming and last fall's back-breaking labor is showing nice results with white narcissus and pansies among the sedum ground cover. The three small Korean boxwoods by the porch are putting our new growth after a dose of good garden soil worked in last fall.

The improvements on the evergreens by the porch encouraged me to try a similar treatment on the stunted barberry bushes along the west side of the house and the puny row of arbor vitae in back. I spent a couple of weekend afternoons digging two holes at the base of each plant, removing many large rocks and filling the holes with good potting soil, then mulching the beds. My back gave out before getting to the last three arborvitae--they'll have to wait a bit longer for their treatment.

In the meantime, the Japanese Full Moon maple, the climbing rose and the clematis I had ordered on-line arrived and needed to be planted. I started to strip the skimpy turf at the side of the porch for the rose and clematis, and soon realized the soil there was much too rocky for these plants--I'll have to re-think the location, or create a raised bed there. I have my heart set on training an old fashioned ever-blooming rose, 'New Dawn,' to twine around the posts on the porch so the wonderful scent can greet visitors.

Full Moon Japanese maple unfurls its leaves.

Herb helped me dig the proverbial $20 hole (more like $100 in today's inflated currency) for the full moon maple and we got it into the ground just before the spring rain. As the rain retreated a lovely rainbow appeared.

On another beautiful evening I began to tackle the brambles and weeds invading the strip of back yard that starts to slope down to the ravine. I want to eventually plant some small redbud trees and other flowering bushes there as a transition to the backdrop of tall trees growing in the ravine. Imagine my surprise and delight to find some tiny violets blooming in this inhospitable rocky soil! They appear to be a native variety, not the common European weed-type, so I'll leave them there in hopes they spread over this shady corner.

Wild violets