More photos from a spring garden

Because of the Nashville flood, I put off the flower photos I intended to share because obviously raising money to help the people of Nashville was more important. The final numbers aren't in yet, but it looks as if the Do The Write Thing for Nashville auction is going to bring in $75,000 for flood relief! Which is above all expectations and I'm honored to have taken part. Thanks to all who bid on the items (especially those who helped bid my chocolate and books up to $200!) and helped spread the word.

So, now here's the latest in the ongoing Mulch Is My Life saga. The above photo is the redbud tree in our back yard. After it stops blooming, the leaves stay a gorgeous purplish/red until late in the summer, when they finally go to a deep green. I LOVE this tree!

There was a snarky article in the Washington Post about how horrible and common azaleas were and how they were ruining the Washington D.C. spring landscape. Well, I can't remember the name of the person who wrote it, but it doesn't matter because I'm sure it was The Grinch, writing under a pseudonym. Personally, I don't think the world can ever have enough azaleas!

Pink ones


White ones


Red ones


Here are some azaleas by our front steps, taken from one of my office windows. My early spring pansy flag was still up when I took this. It's now a magnolia.



Our house was built in an area that was once woods. When we first moved in, before we built the wrought iron fence for the dogs, deer would wander into our back yard in the early morning. The guy who unloaded our furniture from the moving van told us his family used to drive out here to picnic when he was growing up. I'm really glad I wasn't the original owner, because I'd feel hugely guilty about cutting down trees for a subdivision. Every year we lose one or two of the original old pine trees, which is sad, but this photo represents about 1/8 of the wooded area.

The builder had planted grass around the pines, which, to us, looked really strange. So sweetie got the idea to separate them out, then we planted five dogwoods, a Japanese maple, three holly trees, twenty azaleas, and fifteen rhododendron as undergrowth. Also, thousands of bulbs. Those spiky green things in front of the azaleas are daffodils which have flowered, but I haven't cut off the green parts yet because that's how the bulbs get their food to bloom next year.


Also in the woods is one of my favorites flowers I planted eleven years ago that's multiplied and comes back every spring -- bluebells.



Our mailbox is in a brick column; I can't remember what this vine is (even though I chose it), but here's the view from another office window that looks out onto the street. The color's a little strange because it was raining really hard when I took the photo and the sky was the odd yellow hue we sometimes get during tornado season.



That's it for now. Fortunately, our gardens keep gifting us. Next up are roses and iris.