Spring WILL Be Here....

Here are some pictures I took on Sunday afternoon.  I walked around my yard to prepare mentally for the yardwork ahead.  Our snow is gone…yea!!  (Okay, except that little bit there....)  Do you remember these pictures?

Well, fortunately, this is all that's left of that big snow bank, created by shoveling the driveway and front walk.  The dogs are also now clipped.  Poor Tucker (the big one) had so much dense fur, that he was panting whenever he was inside, and preferred to spend much of his day lying in the snow to stay cool!  It was probably too soon, but I clipped Tammy too, who depends on her sweater and lying in pools of sun streaming through the windows to keep warm. 

Here is our focal point granite lamp post, looking a little bit pathetic with nothing growing around it at the moment.  There is the remnant of the clematis from last year.  I should have cut it back in the fall.  (There's that word "should" again.)  I'll do it very soon, and let the warmth of the sun stimulate this year's growth.  In the past, I have put daffodil and tulip bulbs around the post, only a little more than half came up, and less than half even had a bloom.  Not very impressive.  That fall, I dug up the bulbs, thinking of trying a different location.  Most had rotted or had been eaten.  I have many perennials die here.  It's really more of a memorial site the more I think about it.  Every time I look at it, I think of all the plants who died there.  I think what it needs is to build up the bed with several inches of loam and fertilizer (the soil is very poor and sandy) and encircle it with some kind of stone or brick border.  I should probably have a soaker hose in there, and keep it heavily mulched, as it gets a lot of afternoon sun, and dries out easily, regardless of how I try to keep it watered.

This is the "island" in our front yard.  Tucker had to follow me around and keep an eye on what I might be up to.  There will be beautiful hosta there later in the summer.   To Tucker's left, you probably can't see it, but there is just one of only three signs of Spring green I found in the whole yard.  It will be a daylily.  I promise.

Between the rhododendron, the lilac is looking a little pathetic... I hope it'll be budding out soon.  It is kind of a weird lilac, blooms later than the common variety, is actually a little ugly-looking when it blooms, smells wonderful, but it's all over in less than a week.  I don't love it, but it is the only way I have for now.

On the corner of the house, the spirea look so scraggly, but they will come back.  The question is whether I want to keep them there where they tend to obscure my roses.

You can't tell that there are 3 David Austin roses behind them.  More decisions about whether they are in the right place.

Can you see the self-appointed Yard Guard checking up on me?  A little territorial testosterone, maybe? (How can that be? He's had those removed...)

Here is the second sign of Spring, found it in the backyard:

Pussy Willows!

I used to clip these and bring them in to display, but in the 17 years we've lived here, this tree has grown to where I can no longer reach them. 

Here is the forsythia, still appearing quite dormant.  I'm not even sure if I can even clip some to bring in to force yet, I didn't see any swelling buds.  Oh, yeah, and that is a little snow there....that was Sunday, though, I think it is gone now.  :)

And here it is:  the final sign of Spring in my yard 

Everybody's favorite -- a dandelion!