Gorgeous, Annette! Love seeing the setting behind the gardens too! Are the homes in your neighborhood historic? I love the old world look to the setting!

Yes, beautiful homes, and flowers. I really love the fence for a background. Sure beats my chain link setting!

Thanks Neal and Larry. The homes are only 11 years old, all brick in the pictures. Others have brick and stone.

The fence was done for safety several years ago. The neighbor's pit bull would chase me or my guests in my own yard. In addition, their dogs thought my garden was their personal toilet, and I lost many plants.

The fence has also been a Blessing, because it's kept the deer out of the back garden.

N. Ice Follies


Tete-a-Tete has really multiplied well.

Cem9165 said:Marilyn, your Aconite are beautiful! I planted a few of the last fall, I haven't seen them blooming yet.

Here are a few pictures from yesterday.

Garden views

OH love those garden views. Spring is the best time of year.

I love when newer neighborhoods are designed with that look, and your fence really does work beautifully aesthetically too!

As the snow is receding here in my garden, I am seeing those first sings of life in the spring. Bulbs coming up everywhere but this is only the beginning.

Last night and yesterday there was lots of rain. So that washed away snow from various spots. My southside rose garden is visible for the first time in many weeks. Between the roses I have 600 crocus, lots of daffs and some tulips and also wood hyacinths. So I see things popping up out of the ground and can't wait till there are blooms.

Love these bright little guys- Crocus seiberi 'Tricolor'

Wonderful pictures. And I love them too. I have them planted here and they were stunning.

Oh they're so pretty out there naturalized in the lawn! They really are bright. Neal, is your grass that green already? I'm surprised.

Lovely Neal! I planted them several years ago, and saw them bloom the following spring, but no blooms since. I wish mine had a chance to naturalize, however, I'm sure they were destroyed by the critters.

I hope mine naturalize and multiply.

Cem9165 said:Lovely Neal! I planted them several years ago, and saw them bloom the following spring, but no blooms since. I wish mine had a chance to naturalize, however, I'm sure they were destroyed by the critters.

It is so frustrating when the squirrels dig them up and destroy them.

Afew years ago I planted 500 crocus in my southside rose garden and the squirrels immediately dug up every single one! Not one survived to bloom the following spring. The next Fall I redid it with 600 crocus bulbs this time. Then I immediately mulched and covered the area in a carpet of straw. It worked. The squirrels had no idea the bulbs were planted and left them alone. Blooms galore the following spring.

Then I planted species crocus in the lawn of a slope by my driveway. The squirrels dug up many of those also but did not get them all. So some did bloom that spring. Now I am hoping they multiply or I will have to get out there this Fall to plant more.

Crocus chrysanthus 'Bluebird'

Rabbits are the pest here, they go for some and not others. They often nibble the Crocus in the garden, but leave those in the lawn alone.

I've got rabbits, chipmunks, and squirrels, and they do some major damage. My crocus Lilac Beauty has started to naturalize, which I'm thrilled about. The critters clearly didn't get all of these bulbs.

I've lost too many bulbs to count, including Tulip bakeri Lilac Wonder, that was planted with pink muscari, that I was so looking forward to these plants blooming together. Oh well

Over the years, I've started planting mini daffs around the susceptible bulbs, and this seems to have decreased the losses, especially with my lilies and tulips, that I used to find partially eaten, and tossed all over the garden.

Fantastic stuff everyone! (sorry I'm late to the party)

Looking good Neal I'm so glad you had such a positively giddy day--oh wait, that's on that other thread, but whatever--I'm still so glad for you
and, Yay bees!!!

Annette, You have such a gorgeous place! I too am jealous of your 'backgrounds'--that's why I take mostly close ups and have such odd framing for so many pictures

like this--crocus--with two fire hydrants, the streetcorner, the street, the stop sign, and the neighbor's driveway and garage missing

Ann, I have tried for 8 years to have symmetry on either side of my front porch, which faces SW. Planted the same stuff, same day, same everything, every iteration. It doesn't work. The most striking example--I have a big flat rock, roughly about three and a half ft squarish, off the side walk with gardens on either side. Same stuff, same everything, three and a half feet away from each other--different schedule, some died, some thrived, and I have two similar but different gardens, now. Interestingly, the plants on the north and west side of the rock are earlier in the spring than the ones on the south and east side. I figured it out by watching how the snow melts--the rock heats up and radiates heat to the NW. I don't know why/how it works that way there--seems like it all gets the same amount of sun to me and I would have thought the south side would heat more, but the snow always melts first on the NW of that rock. And of course, this is the exact opposite of what I get just a few feet away at the porch gardens--the south side is always first, and dries out the worst, and gets way more sun than the west side of course there's a big porch in the way and some trees at play.

So--I give up. I'm redoing the porch gardens this spring. And I have no illusion of symmetry.

Cem9165 said:Marilyn, your Aconite are beautiful! I planted a few of the last fall, I haven't seen them blooming yet.

Here are a few pictures from yesterday.

Garden views

What variety are the beautiful reddish-pinkish hyacinths in your garden?

@Marilyn, your crocus mix is just gorgeous coming up amongst the rocks.

I hear ya about the symmetry, but the garden is going to grow at its own pace in different areas, no matter how we try to tame it. It sounds like you have microclimates in different areas of your garden.

I also do a lot of cropping of pictures to leave out the undesirable aspects in the background. Your framing is wonderful!

gemini_sage said:Rabbits are the pest here, they go for some and not others. They often nibble the Crocus in the garden, but leave those in the lawn alone.

Rabbits are a pest here too. They'll eat the crocus flowers or the leaves or both. Hopefully, they'll leave these and whatever else comes up.

Might have to start planting the crocus in the grass instead in the Fall.

Cem9165 said:@Marilyn, your crocus mix is just gorgeous coming up amongst the rocks.

I hear ya about the symmetry, but the garden is going to grow at its own pace in different areas, no matter how we try to tame it. It sounds like you have microclimates in different areas of your garden.

I also do a lot of cropping of pictures to leave out the undesirable aspects in the background. Your framing is wonderful!

I think you meant Dirt instead of me.