Spring

Isn't that just the cutest little house you've ever seen? Actually, it's not as little as it looks. But we can thank the previous owner, Barbara Troyer, for the beautiful garden, as well as all the meticulous upkeep she and her husband Jerry did during the 14 years they owned this house. We are the beneficiary of all their hard work. But, oh, the pressure to keep up the standard. Barbara came over yesterday evening to view the garden in bloom and to see the new bathroom. We hadn't told her about the project because we wanted to surprise her. She guessed what it was just as she was opening the door. She liked it, said it was something she'd wanted to do, but just never got around to it. We're very pleased that she's pleased. While she was here, we walked around the garden so she could point some as yet (for us) unidentified plants. "That's a weed. Pull it up," she would say. Or, she would point to something we were thinking was a weed, only it would turn out to be something potentially gorgeous, like the big orange California poppies that will bloom next month. As we strolled around, I scribbled notes as fast asI could. While I'm not sure I can still go back and name them all, the names alone are like poetry: sweet woodruff, candytuft, baptisia, lady's mantle, snowdrops, dogtooth violet, trillium, may apple, viburnum, lambs' ears, artemesia



At the edge of the driveway is this little bed displaying creeping phlox, or "creepy" phlox as Bob keeps calling it. Within this bed are numerous bulbs; we don't even know which kinds except for the tulips that are almost ready to bloom and the narcissus and daffodils that already have.



This spectacular redbud tree is paired by a dogwood on the opposite side of the front sidewalk, both in full bloom at the same time. This redbud grows flowers that spring directly from the trunk and the main branches. I keep forgetting to ask Barbara f she trained it that way or whether it's a particular species. I do believe the tree predates their ownership.