happiness is... garden sprouts!

I'm not good at remembering exactly where things are in my flower beds, so I tend to leave them be at the end of the season so I know more or less where to find everything.  Every year I get more than a little giddy when I pull last season's leaves and the bits of yard fluff that blow onto the flower garden and unearth the pale yellow-green sprouts that mean my flowers are well rested, or are sick enough of winter to make a break for it. Here's what I found this morning:

The prairie crocus is usually the first thing I find - soft fiddleheads unfurling one tendril at a time.

This glossy rose hip was so red and shiny compared to the dusty grey-brown tangle it hovered above.

But if you look closely, behind that rosy little seedpod is the pastel green start of the rosebush wicking up.

Last year we had a LOT of apples cling to the trees right into December.  When they all fell off into the snowbank and got buried, they were easy to forget.  Now we have several little piles like this that will need to be raked up as soon as they are dry enough.  Ick.

I planted TONNES of daffodils, but they have never really thrived in this particular garden.  Every year, I mean to move them, but I always forget.  Nonetheless, thriving or not, at least the little hangers-on have the good sense to show up every year and remind me they are still waiting for a new home.

I love tulips.  I love tulips lots and lots.  I love lots and lots of tulips.  The ones in the flowerbed I poked around in this morning are pink and yellow and HUGE.  The ones in the front garden are mostly pink and yellow, with a few red and a few feathery pink/red and red/yellow ones that I think survived the garden expansion when we dug up the old one.

My creeping myrtle amazes me.  I bought a little mail order 3-pack of sprigs that looked a lot like dead rosemary when they arrived.  I planted them anyways, and they never really caught at the old house.  I dug up the paltry weedy bits from the old house and moved them here.  By the end of the second year, I had to start 'weeding' it out because it is a little TOO creepy now and chokes out other plants...

The hostas are in the shade, and aren't really showing signs of life yet.  Last year's spotted leaves are laying in wait, but the creeping charlie is already starting to poke soft little leaves through the icy bed of rotting leaves.  They are usually the last to put in an appearance.

This is the top of my gardening wagon.  It's parked under the Mountain Ash.  It appears there's still much more thawing to be done before I can start thinking about where to put the nasturtiums and the corn...